Sentient Horror‘s debut 2016 album, Ungodly Forms was a killer release of Stockholm styled death metal that gave the likes of Entrails a run for their money, despite hailing from New Jersey. And now the band is back with a 5 track, 20 minute, stop gap EP between albums, and it shows a slightly different […]

Cut from the same cloth as such old school classic death metal bands bands like Entombed, Dismember, and Grave, Netherlands quartet Deathmarch have put together a pretty tasty little debut EP.  It consists of 5 tracks that total right at 21 minutes and is a perfect fix when you want to get back to basics. […]

Based on the cover, name and album title, I was fully bracing for some thrash metal here, but it turns out Massachusetts’ Scalpel are a death metal band with a fondness of older 90s death metal and East Coast Death metal. There’s not much that needs to much explanation here. Scalpel’s second effort of no […]

“Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, Faceless Burial are a power trio of unimaginable death metal might. Theirs is an unremittingly dark and dexterous sound which draws in a variety of death metal traditions: the gooey grind of early ’90s Finland, the spiraling surge of classic Tampa, the bazooka-blown fury of old Brazil, the atonal angularity ushered […]

If you enjoyed Temple of Void‘s Lords of Death last year, Washington D.C’s Genocide Pact will make you happy with their second album, their Relapse Records debut, Order of Torment as it present the same sort of simple, groove based mid tempo doom/death metal, just with a little less experimentation. As with Temple of Void,  […]

The question of whether you really need to check out Boia, and their debut EP, Chivalry of Death, is simply this: “How much do you bleed for Altars of Madness?” Now don’t get me wrong, any self-respecting metalhead has at least one copy of the seminal debut from Morbid Angel in their collection, but that […]

California’s  Ruin have been around since 1991 with an array of cassettes, Demos and splits under their belt. There are rumors of the band being arrested and institutionalized and they are clouded in mystery. But finally released they their debut album in 2017, Drown in Blood in the spring of last year, and it was […]

This past year has surely been a busy year for Mr. Patrick Mameli, singer and guitarist for Pestilence.  Their first four albums were remastered and reissued in deluxe formats and I reviewed all four of them here.  Perfect reissues!  Patrick has assembled a brand new Pestilence line-up:  Calin Paraschiv on lead guitar, Tilen Hudrap on […]

Delaware’s Scorched impressed me when I saw them live, recently on the Morta Skuld and Embalmer tour and they were cool dudes. Kick ass tour!! I picked up the debut album, Echoes of Dismemberment. This album destroys and I immediately recognized a bunch of their songs, from the live show. The singer Matt Kapa gave […]

For three albums now, Finland’s Decaying have delivered their Bolt Thrower/Asphyx take on war themed death metal with solid results. But with the switch from Hellthrasher Productions to FDA Records, the band appear to have deiced to change things up a bit and spread their creative wings a little. Not that the band still does […]

I’ve been a big fan of Malaysia’s Humiliation, brand of war inspired death metal, for a number of years. They release an album every year, along with some splits to boot. The band is always writing new music. As we speak they are writing their 9th album. Their brand of Bolt Thrower/classic Obituary/Hail of Bullets […]

I’ve been impressed with new label Raw Skull Recordz and their early releases from Bullcreek and Graceless, but the debut full length  from Sweden’s Gravestone is clearly the label’s best effort so far (at least until the new Just Before Dawn?) . You know exactly what you are getting here as the band features Penki Samuelsson from […]

If you have ever asked yourself “what happened if black one man black metal was rendered with a classic Swedish death metal guitar tone?”, Frenchman Stephane Thirion is here to answer your question with his self released third album,  A fleur de peau (‘Sensitive’? ‘On edge’?). First off , I was thankful this wasn’t a Kataklysm […]

It’s been 5 years since Death Strike, the solid second effort from this Dismember/Grave worshiping Dutch act, and although this was released on vinyl and digital last year, I waited with baited breath for the CD version from FDA Records, and it was worth the wait. The formula is the same; well executed Dismember meets  […]

Hailing from Wichita, Kansas, Bestialord is a killer new project from band members that served time in kick ass outfits Manilla Road and Sanctus Infernum.  Guitarist/vocalist Mark Anderson played on one of my favorite latter days MR records Spiral Castle.  Bringing along his SI bandmate Chris Johnson on drums with bassist Rob Harris completing the […]

Milwaukee Wisconsin’s Morta Skuld released a monstrous debut album in 1993, Dying Remains and I listened to it constantly.  Beyond quality death metal, with some thrash metal tendencies, but leaning more towards the brutal side of things, like Demolition Hammer and eventually some Solstice influence.  Well fast forward 24 years later and I get to […]

I was fairly impressed with Discreation’s 2015 effort Procreation of the Wretched , a solid European death metal record from a group of Germans I had never heard of. The album took a while to get going, but its last 2/3 was pretty damn good. End of Day, does not take a while to get […]

There are some similarities between Germany’s Corrosive and Sweden’s Entrails. Both were active in the 90s but never really became fully productive until the reformed on the 00s. Also, both play a beefy, killer form of Old school death metal with a heavy emphasis on killer grooves and Stockholm based riffage. Corrosive isn’t quite on […]

In 2012, I covered the Slaughter on the Water III festival aboard the USS Hornet in San Francisco Bay. Yes, a death metal festival on an aircraft carrier. Actually, make that inside the hangar of an aircraft carrier, and you’d better believe that shit was loud. I got tinnitus in my balls. The day was a blur […]

Unholy rotting corpses, Batman!  Zombiefication‘s latest EP, Reaper’s Consecration, is about as gnarled and old-school Swedish as death metal gets…and these guys are from Mexico.  Viva la muerte indeed. Reaper’s Consecration consists of five tracks of gruesome death rattling rotting flesh from bone, and the killer riffs ooze forth like hot pus from infected wounds.  […]

From the always reliable FDA Rekotz come some homegrown German talent on the form of Deserted Fear and their debut album, My Empire. It’s not a pure old school record or any sort of homage but instead a modern death metal record with some tangible old school nods notably Asphyx and Vader. Sound wise, My […]

Do not assume that the lateness of this review is somehow indicative of procrastination resulting from indifference related to Abnormality’s Contaminating the Hive Mind. Said procrastination is the result of…well, whatever else might lead to procrastination. In any event, the Massachusetts’ act delivers a memorable effort here for which extra (figurative) points are awarded for […]

How do I love thee Grave? Let me count the ways. It is the heart and soul of demonic growler, guitarist, and sole original member Ola Lindgren and the way he keeps the machine running in such a well-oiled manner. It is the rottenness and sheer weight of those riffs, the ugly enormousness of the […]

Cryptopsy’s 2008 album,The Unspoken King, was a polarizing album at best, an absolute abomination at worst.  Right or wrong, that output earned the band the dreaded deathcore tag, and the clean vocals of new frontman Matt McGachy (3 Mile Scream) went over like a turd in a punchbowl.  Fans expecting the brutal death metal that […]

This year-old Chicago outfit is going out this fall on Obituary’s Carnival of Death tour, which is packed with old-school death (the reformed Broken Hope, plus Jungle Rot), and technical death (Decrepit Birth). Yet the press notes described Encrust as similar to Mastodon, Clutch or Kvelertak, so that seemed an odd addition to the bill. Then I sampled the first track, “Predatory Skin,” and […]