Far be it from me to understand  how or why certain bands make it bigger than others, why artists deserving of much more in the way of accolades and acclaim just never quite rise to certain levels of success. I’m sure the truth is probably that any number of factors come into play, not the […]

I really enjoyed Portugal’s Oak’s debut album, in 2019 – Lone.  As one would expect with funeral death/doom metal the songs are ultra-long.  The debut album had four songs and the album length exceeded 50 minutes.  Lots of atmospherics and plodding and bludgeoning heaviness.  The music never got into that sludgy type of style, just […]

I haven’t been super excited about death/doom metal and its subgenres, for a while now, heck I completely missed the Shape of Despair album from last year, and they were one of my absolute faves in the genre back in the day. Heck, the new Insomnium, barely registered with me. But in 2020, Colorado’s Fires […]

Many bands choose the self-released route nowadays, and I’m opting to believe Shores of Null is one of them. They’re far too consistently superb to not have attracted some attention from the larger metal labels, such as Century Media, Season of Mist, or Nuclear Blast. Their 4th full-length, The Loss of Beauty reinforces this. Their […]

I initially grabbed this promo strictly due to the striking cover photo (courtesy of Tatiana Lebedeva), literally not knowing anything about the band or album, other than that it mentioned depressive and one-man black metal in the promo blurb. So with the band’s moniker, album title, and song titles like “I Choose to Die”, No […]

I’ve been working through writer’s block for months now, and nowhere near my normal standard of productivity. I’m at the stage where I am wondering if I have anything to add to the heavy music stratosphere, or if anyone cares about my voice. You know, existential bullshit. Anyway, here I am, a couple of dick […]

Intro, take 2. Let’s talk about some filthy, nasty, ass sweat-inducing death metal. Last year, I had several albums that could fit this description on my year-end list, with a few just short of it. I think the only band in the genre I did not see live last year was Tribal Gaze, but maybe […]

Death/doom is my wheelhouse. This year at MDF, I was finally able to see one of my favorite bands, November’s Doom. During the middle of the day, no less. That was a bucket list item. So, when a band of which I have never heard lists them as influenced by, or for fans of, well, […]

My friends, we are inching ever-closer to that most wonderful time of year again when you can actually go outside and, like, EXIST without instantly bursting into flames. When the air is crisp and everything doesn’t smell like either hot piss or cooked manure. The modern human is not made to endure summer. Summer arrives […]

Thronehammer’s vocalist Kat Shevil Gillham sings and drums on the debut EP, from UK’s Enshroudment.  I’m really an old school doom death fan. I do enjoy new bands in this genre but bands like Morgion, Anathema, Paradise Lost, Dream Death– all their earliest releases, as well as My Dying Bride, all hold a special place in my heart. This 3 song […]

Detroit’s death/doom mongers Temple of Void has parlayed 3 solid albums (notably the last 2 efforts,  2017s Lords of Death and 2020s The World That Was on Shadow Kingdom Records) into a deal with heavyweight label Relapse Records. And as you’d expect on a jump to the ‘majors’, the band has upped the ante, but […]

I’m surprised how low profile a release from a band comprised of death metal legend Chris Reifert (Autopsy, ex Abscess, ex The Ravenous) and his new Autopsy bass player, Greg Wilkinson (Brainoil, Deathgrave, ex Graves at Sea) has been. Even for Peaceville. I wouldn’t have even heard of this project if it wasn’t for a […]

Finland’s Desecresy return with their 7th full length album Unveil in the Abyss. Those unfamiliar with the band must know Tommi Grönqvist is a one man band. He plays all the instruments, does all the vocals and this talented bastid also does all the artwork. Their album covers always having a main color theme and […]

Finland’s Desolate Shrine fourth album, Deliverance from the Godless Void from 2017 was and still is a great album,  and five years later here I am reviewing their fifth album Fires of the Dying World 7 songs in 46 minutes. Actually 6, since the opening track is an intro and it’s like a moody classical […]

Up until 2017s The aptly named The Dismal Circle, I was unfamiliar with Germany’s death-doom veterans Ophis (‘snake’), but that album was a solid effort with some suitably crumbling, hefty death/doom that had strains of classic Morgion engrained in the moping lumbers. And that has continued for album number 5, and is possibly even a […]

Houston’s Malignant Altar‘s Retribution of Jealous Gods demo from 2019 perked my ears up quite a bit. I knew the band was going to be a force to be reckoned with. The 3 songs were heavy, dark n cavernous and really filthy and grimy death metal. Realms of Exquisite Morbidity is their debut album and […]

For whatever reason, I passed over this Dutch avant garde death/doom act in the mid 90s, when they released most of their discography (mainly the respected of 1994s Immense Intense Suspense and 1997s more commercial, quirky  Skycontact). Maybe I had my fill with Pan-Thy-Monium’s output or Celestial Season’s stringed effort or even Visceral Evisceration’s single album, […]

As if Transcending Obscurity Records didn’t already kill it with phenomenal releases in 2020, we now get the sophomore effort from Heads For the Dead who are made up of: Ralf Hauber on vocals, Ed Warby on drums and Jonny Pettersson on all other instruments.  The band’s 2018 debut Serpent’s Curse flew past me in […]

There are a lot of hard-working guys (and girls) in metal (it’s not like one band pays the bills… or 10 for that matter). I submit to you Adam Clemans as one of them. He does vocals for more bands than I can remember off the top of my head: Skeletonwitch, Wolvhammer, Noose Rot, Shaidar […]

If one had asked me last year; “Hey, you stupid, fat piece of shit, who is your favorite death doom band,” I would have said “Insomnium…?” With a question mark at the end, asking almost incredulously. The reason behind that is I had very little experience. If you’ve followed my reviews, you’ll know death doom […]

Much like Connecticut’s Fires In The Distance, Austin, TX’s Hinayana (‘Lesser Path’ in Sanskrit) is a US based band playing an excellent  melodic doom death style that sounds like they come from Finland or some other Scandinavian shore that perfects this style of metal in their sleep. Deep vocals, crunchy guitars, layers of somber melody […]

I was and still am a big fan of Finland’s Convocation debut album Scars Across from two years ago.  I am already a huge fan of LL from Desolate Shrine and his work with them as well as Lie In Ruins.   Convocation fall into the doom/death category and the debut album enveloped such depressive, heavy […]

Ah, another review that has suffered the effects of long term tardiness due to an extremely hectic life schedule these past few months. Nevertheless, the term “better late than never” does not aptly due justice to the transgression of not getting the word out sooner on the fantastic second full-length offering, Usurper, from the Netherland’s […]

In Mourning strike me as the type of band that know what they’re good at, and stick to that formula. Much like bands like The Black Dahlia Murder, or Cannibal Corpse, they’ve found their sound and don’t really ever deviate from it. This approach can be a double edged sword. While their newest album, 2019s […]

It’s funny how life is with its odd and overall meaningless coincidences. Just recently, I reviewed Unhumanized, the latest release from Cianide, and in that review I had made the reference, for the unfamiliar, of imagining Bob Bagchus (Asphyx, Soulburn, Grand Supreme Blood Court), John McEntee (Incantation, Funerus), and Paul Speckmann (Master) coming together in […]