As one of the European fathers of death/doom and gothic metal, Paradise Lost has had controversial ups and downs for years. Though the band has released quality music and some great albums, nothing has been quite as monumental as Gothic, Icon, and Draconian Times. If anything, the band stayed far from that chapter of their […]

Century Media must be stock piled with cash, absolute mountains of it I reckon. The question that keeps popping in my brain is how this has come to be? Is it thanks to their massive back catalog bringing in the bacon, or something more sinister ala a takeover by a middle eastern monolith or some […]

Even after two utterly punishing albums in 2005s The Healing Process and 2007s The Ills of Modern Man, Canada’s Despised Icon have a bull’s eye directly on their back for the deathchore haters and scene haters to take pot shots at. From their cocked hats and Vans to their clinical triggered sound and shift from […]

Though regarded along with Heaven Shall Burn as one of Germany’s premier metalcore outfits and having been around since 1999 with 6 albums under their belt, Caliban have yet to garner huge success in the US and get the acclaim of their stateside metalcore peers. And while I don’t see that really changing with album […]

So, album number four from Vancouver’s heavy metal stalwarts has some major changes from 2007s Fire up the Blades; a change in label from Roadrunner to Century Mediocre, the departure of ‘harsh’ vocalist Jamie Hooper, bassist Nick Cates and Saxon fighting drummer Alexei Rodriguez, a change from Joey Jordison (Slipknot) to a Jack Endino (High […]

One of the world’s most renowned and successful labels in the field of heavy music, Century Media Records, proudly announces a worldwide cooperation with InsideOutMusic & SuperballMusic, two prominent labels featuring the finest classic acts and hottest newcomers in progressive rock/metal, post-rock and alternative. Both labels will now be distributed worldwide by EMI Music and […]

Here’s another project from the Strapping Young Lad guys. Essentially guitarist Jed Simon’s baby, the group also consists of SYL members Byron Stroud (bass) and legendary journeyman drummer Gene Hoglan (seriously, how many projects can this man juggle? He’s a machine!), as well as thrash legends Glen Alvelais of Forbidden and Testament fame on guitars […]

Bringer of Plagues is the second album from Dino Cazeres’ post Fear Factory (though it appears he’s back in the fold with BC Bell) baby Divine Heresy, and it’s basically more of the same, though now fronted by Travis Neal of The Bereaved, who replaced original screamer/crooner Tommy “Vext” Cummings last year after a rather […]

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Winds of Plague have become one of the poster children for modern American metal. And to be honest I rather enjoyed their 2005 debut, A Cold Day in Hell, (which at the time was pretty fresh sounding) and the 2008 Century Media debut, Decimate the Weak. I also enjoyed the […]

To be honest, I don’t know why I’m bothering with this review. There are two crowds when it comes to this band and deathcore in general- love it of hate it, and most have decided before even checking the sophomore album from Suicide Silence out. The thing is, the deathcore haters and the fans that […]

Gotta give it up for Galder – the guy is consistent. From 1999’s Ill-Natured Spiritual Invasion through 2006’s Vermin, he’s basically been making improvements on an already addictive melodic black metal formula: monstrous, sinister riffs, spooky-key grandeur, thundering, syncopated drumming and that cavernous, blackened snarl. (I love the first two albums too but stylistically, they’re […]

What’s this? Another Vegan Straight Edge monolith on Century Media? Unlike Earth Crisis though, Maroon are virtually unrecognizable from the maniacs that unleashed “Captive in the room of the conspirator” and “Antagonist.” Back then it was all about the new school sound forged by Day of Suffering, Arkangel and to an extent Earth Crisis (oh […]

Despite being world’s apart musically, there is one thing that ties Earth Crisis to the band of one of my previous reviews (Victims’ Killer), this being honesty. It’s a quality that has been apparent in Earth Crisis since their inception, even when they besmirched their legacy musically in 2000 when they put out Slither they […]

I really wanted to like this, and at first I did, or at least thought I did. It’s not that The Cancer Empire is a bad album, but just kinda plain and rather safe. These types of reviews are always the hardest to write – not bad but not particularly good, these middle of the […]

There’s been an almost Bring Me the Horizon/Bullet For My Valentine like buzz in the British media about this Brighton metalcore act and their third release- on Century Media records no less. However, after absorbing Hollow Crown for a while, it’s really nothing too special in the realms of noisy, occasionally melodic metalcore/hardcore and nothing […]

Wow. I did not see this coming. Whereas the debut from Canada’s female fronted metalcore outfit Once Only Imagined, was a complete knock off of In this Moments Beautiful Tragedy, the sophomore effort utterly destroys In This Moment’s second, tamer effort, The Dream with a fierce and impressive evolution in the band’s sound. Though still […]

You can talk about winning streaks in metal all you want, but how many acts have been on one as long and consistent as Napalm Death? Think about it. The game was raised way back on 2000’s Enemy of the Music Business and continued with 2002’s Order of The Leach, then raised again on an […]

Whereas the upcoming release, Lullabies For the Dormant Mind from label mates The Agonist is a vital, powerful and stunningly good example of female fronted metal done right, the debut from Wisconsin’s Luna Mortis is little more than a mish mash of styles that while, has some promise simply does not do enough to justify […]

Iscariah is not a newcomer to the world of metal; after all, the bugger was on Immortal’s last two records playing oft-inaudible bass, as well as the more bass-aware black metal troupe Wurdulak, who added, if nothing else, another couple of metal albums with a ravaged nun on the cover. He’s also been in Necrophagia, […]

I’ve never been a huge God Forbid fan. I’ve given their albums cursory listens, but essentially lumped them in with the likes of All That Remains, Shadows Fall, Killswitch Engage and such as far as they ply chorus driven American Metal that has one foot in the mainstream and one foot in the underground, and […]

It is apparent that the recent wave of folk metal is becoming the new metalcore. After the genre received quite a boost in the last year or so bands have been popping up left and right with traditional Scandinavian infused metal. The problem is the cheese factor has escalated and it seems labels jump at […]

Legion and Emil Dragutinovich, both more known for their previous participation in prominent Swedish Black Metal act Marduk, are pretty creative spirits who seem to earn their keep by taking part in as many Metal projects as their time allows. Having tied up with some other not so well known musicians under the name of […]

I really wanted to like this album. Well… I do like it, but I wanted to love it. I wanted to never get enough of it. But I got enough after the first couple spins. Don’t get me wrong, I love Loomis’ playing and I love Nevermore. But this could have been so much better, […]

Maurycy “Mauser” Stefanowicz of Vader fame, announced some time ago that he would be leaving his long running extreme outfit to focus on his new project, Unsun. For straight up, death metal, Vader fans, the only enjoyment you’ll get out of this proposal is looking at the rack on lead lady Aya. However, followers of […]

You know what? This album really has a lot of good things going on, though I recoiled in vehemence the minute I heard the first track, “Forever”. Last thing we need is another pop punk quazi-metalcore band like AFI, Atreyu or Avenged Sevenfold. Right? Well…don’t flame me for saying I like it. A lot. This […]