Though 2023 is in our rearview mirror, there’s still a slew of quality late 2023  releases lingering that deserve your attention. One such release is the third album from Belgium’s Carnation, who burst onto the scene with the impressive debut Chapel of Abhorrence back in 2018 and followed it up with the equally impressive Where […]

Heavy metal is in dire need of appropriate album covers to get tattooed directly above one’s butt crack. Well, Plaguemace is here to provide that reptile you’ve always wanted above your b-hole. They provide some gnarly ass death metal to put up there, too. You’re going to get your typical new wave of old-school death […]

Anytime I think of Warcrab, I can’t help but be reminded of the meme/photo of the crab holding a knife. I sometimes identify with that crab. Crabs in general. Something about a hard shell and tasty insides. Legs spread and eaten. Hold on now before we all get hot and bothered. This isn’t that kind […]

Necrosanct was a short-lived death metal band from England, who had a little smattering of success.  In their brief 5 year period they were writing maniacs and released three full-length albums which I will touch on in this review.  In 2019 the compilation Legacy was released which included some demos/rehearsals.  We get UK’s Back on […]

Switzerland’s Hellhammer lasted only a few years in the early 80’s, before the band became the mighty Celtic Frost.  Hellhammer was influential to many death/thrash/black metal bands across the world for decades since their early reformation with the new name. Tom Gabriel Warrior had a vision years ago with Celtic Frost finally laid to rest […]

Let’s get something out of the way first: Fuck cassettes. I recall a conversation I had with a few metalheads slightly older than myself at a festival when one of the bands “only” had CDs and vinyl available as physical formats. Two young whippersnappers asked them if they had any cassettes, to which they replied; […]

This fall/early winter, a group of excellent Swedish-styled/HM-2 death metal releases will be vying for your attention and hard-earned cash. Belgium’s Carnation,  Prosthetic Records’ 2023 foray into the genre, Xorsist, Australia’s The Plague, reliable German vets Endseeker, and the best of the bunch, the long overdue second album from Sweden’s Gravestone. The 2018 debut, Sickening, […]

Guitarist/Vocalist Tim Rowland’s Alchemy of Flesh album returns with By Will Alone.   A big change in terms of sound on this record is that he strictly uses six-string guitars tuned to D Standard.   The last album was a bit of a tribute to Morbid Angel, and it was noted that Rowland was trying to use […]

It’s been a difficult few years for Fuming Mouth since they released their debut, The Grand Descent. You can likely get that entire backstory from any other review of this album, so I won’t dive into it here. However, suffice it to say this band came out swinging with their follow-up, Last Day of Sun. […]

So here it finally is…. the new Suffocation album, and notably the first release without original vocalist Frank Mullen, since the band formed in 1990. While other members (other than the other lone original member, guitarist Terrance Hobbs), have come and gone, Frank and Terrance have been there since day one, so this album is […]

So this fall sees a couple of Matt Schott (Valdur, Sxuperion) projects drop new albums. There’s a disgusting new Cabinet EP and this project he has with his former cohort in Weverin, named Oreamnos. I covered the prior Oreamnos release, Into the Night, and it was as I was expected considering Schott’s (who does drums […]

All the underground maniacs, me included rejoiced in moribund when Autopsy put the pieces back together and reformed in 2008/2009.  The band always a cult favorite was happy to see how their name, over the years, had grown to more than just cult status.  What was originally supposed to be a short-lived reunion became full-blown […]

Canada’s Tomb Mold have a pretty good underground death metal following in their short 8-year existence and their output has been excellent, honing their craft and releasing better albums each and every time.  Their third album in 2019, Planetary Clairvoyance, was their finest hour.  The band increased their touring output as well increased their exposure […]

After 3 years, countless singles, EPs, and compilations former Amon Amarth and Blood Mortized guitarist Anders Biazzi and his cohorts are finally back with a full-length album (number 5) to follow up 2020s An Army at Dawn, one of the better Bolt Thrower worshiping albums of the last few years. But there are a few […]

Spain’s Decapitated Christ has been knocking around for a while now releasing albums with titles like Antikristian Extreme Dekapitation, The Vanishment and Extermination of the Deities, and their last effort in 2014, Arcane Impurity Ceremonies. Well after 9 years they are at it again with album number 5, and while it’s probably not a reunion […]

Germany’s Sulphur Aeon has been dark for a few years now after churning (literally) out three superb albums of murky, majestic, Lovecraftian death metal since 2013, that had them being uttered in the same breath as the likes of Portal, Ulcerate, and such. But after a 5-year silence since 2018’s The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos, […]

With a name like Satanic Tea Co, it must be good, right? Well, I’m here to tell you that without a doubt, A Celestial Beating is a massive EP wrapped in an adorably evil box. It’s a small box, to be sure, 13.63 minutes of Brutal Death Metal that feels like a much bigger album […]

I don’t know how many Volbeat fans there are dwelling in our dungeon, but if there are any, it may please them to know this is frontman Michael Poulsen’s return to death metal. “Return,” your dumb ass questions incredulously? Yes, return. If you’re unfamiliar with his band Dominus’s early material, I’d recommend familiarizing yourself, as […]

Dripping Decay is the best kind of decay. Wet, sopping, moist decay. A sexy band name for a sexy collection of songs. Maybe it will make you drip by the end, too. If you couldn’t tell by that first paragraph, I have problems. Metal is the only thing on this planet that makes me happy. […]

What the hell is going on over in Indiana? Seriously, I can’t bring to mind anything notable about the Hoosier state, aside from one day a year when a bunch of the world’s finest racecar drivers go to press their lips against some disgusting bricks so they can go around a circle a billion times, […]

Can you believe Chaos Horrific is the 16th album from Cannibal Corpse?  Talk about an achievement in death metal.  Seriously if they wanted to break up now who could blame them?  They have accomplished more than enough and have given back to the death metal scene an enormous amount. That said, other than the album […]

Denmark’s sludgiest and filthiest band on the planet returns with a seven-song EP and my bud David Mikkelsen – guitars/vox is once again crafting some of the heaviest and gnarliest disgusting riffs known to man. Aldrig i livet was their last full-length released during the height of crappy COVID and was an excellent album and […]

There’s a history of amazing split albums in the vast history of Metal. Nunslaughter/Fluids, Satyricon/ Enslaved, Fluids/ Fulci and now I have in my grubby little paws this ode to all things gory and violent death. This is pure, grinding Death Metal right here, folks. Make no mistake about that friends and neighbors. Remember that […]

If you had told me in 1994 that a band with the name Dying Fetus (DF) would eventually become one of the biggest names in death metal I would have told you to get your head examined…..but that is precisely what has occurred through the decades.  Dying Fetus returning with their ninth full-length album Make […]

For those of you in America and around the world still very much in the hellacious grip of global warming’s wrath, I apologize for what I’m about to say but – ’round these parts, the creeping chill of autumn’s arrival is very much starting to make an appearance, and frankly I need it to just […]