Much like how they opened the year with the killer trio of releases from Corpsessed, Lie in Ruins and Lvcifyre, Dark Descent Records is closing out 2014 with a slew of more stunning releases from Horrendous, Phobocosm, Sempiternal Dusk, and this, the most twisted of the lot, the debut from Finland’s Swallowed. While Finland’s death metal […]

Despite an impressive lineage from some of Canada’s best technical death metal bands like Atheretic, Neuraxis and Vengeful, the debut from Phobocosm plays more like Dark Descent’s typical, cavernous, devastatingly heavy doom/death sounds of  Binah, Lvcifyre , Lie In Ruins and notably Corpsessed and it rules. But was there really any doubt? With a crushing Colin Marston mix, Deprived […]

Back in 2012 these yanks released, The Chills, a damn fine Stockholm styled death metal album that made it into the top ten of my 2012 year end list. I was curious as to how the band would follow it up and keep up with the retro trend that’s been top notch since and especially here […]

I typically have loved and probably will love everything and anything that Dark Descent Records releases. Their 2014 thus far has been stunning with the likes of Corpsessed, Lie In Ruins, Lvcifyre Thantifaxath, and a Binah EP. However, here is the third album from blackened death thrashers Gravehill, the second for Dark Descent, and as with […]

I can’t tell you a whole lot about Ontario’s Thantifaxath other than that they are Canadian. No members are listed in the CD or on line anywhere, no Facebook page, no official website. But what I can tell you is that Dark Descent’s first real foray into black metal amid of the label’s excellent death metal […]

Rounding out Dark Descent’s excellent trio of early 2014 releases (inc. Corpsessed and Lvcifyre) in the sophomore album from Finland’s long running death metalers, Lie In Ruins (formerly Dissected back in the 90s). And while not as crushing or cavernous as their label mates above, Lie In Ruins still deliver a powerful if more traditional, […]

There is something foul afoot in England. Not since the late ’80s early ’90s has there been this much of an explosion in quality metal arising from the once fair isle in the last couple of years. And it’s not just the quality, it’s the substance of the music that is surprising; Binah, Grave Miasma, […]

After tantalizing the death metal world and truly putting Dark Descent Records on the map with their 2011 EP, The Dagger & The Chalice, Finland’s strangely named Corpsessed have finally unleashed their debut album, and it, along with Dark Descent’s two other killer early 2014 releases from Lie In Ruins and Lvcifyre, have signaled some […]

Here is one of those reviews I hate writing. The debut from the UK’s Craven Idol has gotten a lot of buzz in media metal circles. Playing a form of black/thrash death and replete with band member names like ‘Scourger’ and ‘Immolator of Sadistic Wrath’, this British trio were the apparent second coming of Destroyer […]

What we have here is the complete discography, 26 songs in total, of now defunct Swedish act, Fulmination, who were around for a few short years in the early 90’s and featured yet to be members of Uncanny, Centinex and Entrails but never actually releasing a full length album.  The band played a pretty straightforward […]

Mega thanks to Matt, from Dark Descent Records, for not only having one of the best underground record labels out there, but for also being such a cool dude.  This ep was a surprise that he sent me, I never heard of this Australian act, and San La Muerte plays a filthy dirty raw brand […]

Dark Descent Records has been on an absolute tear of killer releases in the past few years. Off the top of my head they have put out great records by: Ritual Necromancy, Entrails, Burial Invocation, Mitrochondrion, and Thantifaxath. If the rest of their catalog is as good as the aforementioned, or Lantern’s spectacular debut Below, […]

So Dark Descent Records has taken a little break from their Finnish death metal revival to license this 2012 release from this Swedish/Hungarian act, which was originally released on Mi Saco Un Ojo Records.  Fans of the likes of recent acts Necrowretch and Necrocurse should take note, as Megatomb ply the same sort of black […]

After finishing 2012 on a killer note with the likes of Gorephilia, Maveth, Desolate Shrine and Paroxsihzem, Dark Descent Records is off to an equally killer and equally Finnish start to 2012 with releases from Vorum and Krypts. One could argue that the Finnish death metal revival is almost equal to the Swedish revival of […]

Dark Descent records deliver another punishing blast of nasty death metal in the form of the full-length debut from Finnish band, Vorum.   The label has made quite a name for themselves over the past couple of years through a string of high quality releases and commitment to old school values and the uglier side of […]

After five years of toiling around in obscurity in their native Canada, brutal death metal newcomers Paroxsihzem,  with the help of  Dark Descent Records, have re-unleashed onto the world, their 2010 self-titled debut full-length album. Sporting a raw, crude production, the album is a whirlwind of vicious riffs, raucous noise and sheer nastiness. In short, […]

Sometimes all you need is some cool cover art to pull you in. A black and wraith-like six-armed winged deity, bristling with weapons and riding a flying serpent past a rotting Lovecraftian cairn piled high with skulls. Part Frazetta and part 18th-century woodcut, lovingly created by Chilean illustrator Daniel Desecrator. It’s simple and stark and […]

Tired of overly clean, triggered production jobs and some of the more generic, sterile aspects of modern death metal?  Finland’s Desolate Shrine might just be the antidote you are looking for.  Hot on the heels of their 2011 debut Tenebrous Towers; the gut-wrenching The Sanctum of Human Darkness is the depraved follow-up.   This is dark […]

So I had to do a little research to discover that ‘Binah’ means ‘understanding,’ and is ‘the second intellectual sephira on the kabbalistic Tree of Life’. Oh yeah, it also happens to be the name of a new young English death metal trio, and their debut album is the best retro Swedish-styled death metal album […]

I’ve been struggling with this review for several weeks now. On one hand I feel its  typically strong Dark Descent release that adds another quality act and release to their excellent roster. But on the other hand, it’s a strange record that struggles with influences, identity and consistency. Notably featuring members of Belgian black metal […]

I feel a little bad for California’s Coffin Texts.  They released a Egyptian/Middle Eastern themed death metal album back in 2000 called Gods of Creation, Death & Afterlife, and by all counts it was a pretty solid affair. The only problem was there was also band around at the same time called Nile, maybe you’ve […]

After a few relatively quiet months,  Dark Descent Records has unleashed an unholy duo of crumbling doom/death metal in the form of Emptiness‘s experimentally depressive Loss and Anhedonist‘s crawling, lumbering debut, Netherwards. However, when truly unearthing Netherwards one word comes to mind more than any other; Cavernous. Playing a form of subterranean doom/death metal Seattle’ […]

Formed in 1987 in suburb of  St. Louis, Missouri as Doom Lyre, Timeghoul were largely unnoticed  in the early 90s. Heck, I lived in Missouri in the early 90s, and I never heard of them. But here is Dark Descent Records to give you another one of their well done re-issues, but like the label’s […]

Well fuck! That didn’t take long! After kicking my ass for a majority of 2011 with the likes of Entrails, Cryptborn, Uncanny, Miasmal, Undead Creep, Corpsessed, Gorephilia and such, Dark Descent Records, a mere two fucking days into 2012, has unleashed yet another gem of awesome old school death metal. Despite the label and PR […]

Dark Descent Records will release the highly anticipated CD follow-up to the twice-pressed Sweet Blasphemies cassette from the East Coast’s favorite sons of filth HORRENDOUS. Entitled The Chills, the new EP is targeted for a late November/early December release and defines the kind of mucked up, motoring, and morbid Swedish/American death metal that HORRENDOUS has […]