Though most of you may groan, for me, 2005 has been a stellar year for the so called “death-core” genre (I use the term broadly to describe music that mixes death metal, grindcore and hardcore/metalcore); Embrace the End, The Taste of Blood, The Number 12 Looks Like You, Ion Dissonance, The Red Chord, Antagony, Animosity, […]
Truth be told Atreyu, is the meekest of the Hot Topic ‘metalcore’ triumvirate (rounded out by Avenged Sevenfold and Bleeding Through), being easily more accessible than their peers but having just enough metal seeping into their punky, hardcore laced, catchy visage to be more respectable than Silverstein or Thrice. Still, Atreyu and their ilk remain […]
Poor old Metal Blade, they can’t catch break. Hoping to bottle the magic of their prior albums, they signed Unearth, The Red Chord and As I Lay Dying, in hopes of riding the hype their debut albums garnered in the metalcore scene. Alas though both, The Oncoming Storm and Clients were over hyped and under […]
Discounting Moonsorrow’s (for me, mildly disappointing) album, its been a pretty barren year for great Viking metal, with even a few rotten eggs thrown in (fellow Germans Iuvenes, Suidakra), so when I finally got my hands on this Germans band’s highly regarded album, I was giddy, boy was it worth the wait. Part Ensiferum, part […]
The French seem to have found a niche with expansive avant-garde post hard-core noise with the likes of Comity, Amanda Woodward, Bumblebees, etc, but this has to stand out as the best yet. This is soooo damn good folks that I’m not sure simple words can convey its brilliance. With feet firmly planted in the […]
While I enjoy a certain few instrumental bands such as Pelican, Keelhaul, Electro Quarterstaff and Tides I generally like my music with vocals. But Trephine presents a rather interesting take on instrumental mayhem, with a rather eclectic style of instrumental metal. Forsaking the norm of expansive atmospheric droning, Trephine, like Dysrythmia, takes a more spastic, […]
Few bands can claim to have the recent adversity of Soilent Green (the tragic death of bassist Scott Williams), and it shows on this album as Soilent Green is as angry as ever. Admittedly, Soilent Green’s last album A Deleted Symphony for the Beaten Down, had a ‘samey’ quality about you just had to enjoy […]
After a four year hiatus, Philly’s All Else Failed return with a revamped line-up and a renewed energy to follow up their Archetype album. And while certainly a solid album of metallic discordant, chaos core and hints of other more commercial ingredients, I’m not quite sure there’s room for All Else Failed at the top. […]
I’ll admit it. This was easily one of my most anticipated released for 2005, and upon looking at the cosmic album artwork and equally celestial song titles, I had some pangs of disappointment as I braced for a cyber/space metal style change from one of my favorite bands. However, upon hitting play and being greeted […]
Wow, this is good. Formerly known as Natt, a gothic metal band with female vocals, this Norwegian band is now a far more impressive beast with a darkly progressive and avant-garde black metal lean that imbues visions of Arcturus, Solefald and Lunaris.The first thing you notice when “Joyless Trance of Winter” fires up is the […]
It’s rare I make any personal connections to any bands in this business as I deal mainly with PR and label folks. I may do an interview with a band, but that’s the last time I generally talk to them ever again. With a few exceptions (Tomer Pink from Subterranean Masquerade. Lord K from The […]
“Napalm Death is pissed off, Long live Napalm Death!”. I must admit, I’ve never really been a huge Napalm Death fan other than Harmony Corruption. I only own their early catalogue to earn scene points and frankly after Fear, Emptiness, Despair, Diatribes and Inside the Torn Apart efforts, I gave up on them all together. […]
I’m always uncomfortable reviewing re-released ‘lost classics’, especially when I never heard it first time around. I had to dig up this Quebec thrash band’s biography to find out who they were, but apparently this lot was hot shit in the Canadian Metal scene but due to bad label distribution, this 1986 album never truly […]
Germany’s Fear My Thoughts complete they shift from rumbling metalcore to melodic death metal that was hinted at on last years ambitious The Great Collapse, and while Hell Sweet Hell is a solid album, it just doesn’t leap out at me and I still prefer the band’s more extroverted stylings of V.I.T.R.I.O.L. That being said, […]
We all know that death metal isn’t exactly a forte of the Finns, but here is Finnish black/death metal supergroup of sorts, named after a desert in South America and featuring current and ex members of Funeris Nocturnum, Swallow the Sun, Machine Men and Sotajumala. And its pretty fucking good. With this group of band […]
I’ve enjoyed listening to Aborted’s transformation from cold Floridian death metal clone to a menacing, groove filled, Belgian Carcass homage, and with the The Archaic Abattoir, Aborted have released the album that Impaled’s Death After Life should have been. Backed by Tue Madsen’s (Mnemic, In-Quest, Ektomorf, Heaven Shall Burn) massive sound replacing Goremageddon’s slightly mechanical […]
More fine non-doom form Firebox, and upon immediate listens, Finland’s aptly titled Total Devastation reminded me of The Amenta and Scarve with their intensely ballistic take on cybernetic metal, although not quite as blackened. Of course Reclusion boasts a massive production (courtesy of Finnvox) and has the usual injections of cyber samples and programming, but […]
I really wanted to like this, even more so after the blistering opening track ‘Reaction’. Commercially gleaned metalcore with a healthy dose of modern punk and old school hardcore (Bane?), but in the end the album loses steam and ends up being lumped in with the vast hordes of faceless middle tier, cliched metalcore.If the […]
A quick look and the band members best albums of 2004 gives you a quick insight as to the style of this Italian mob of noisy young men.; Converge You Fail Me, The End Within Dividia, Isis Panopticon, oh and Converge You Fail Me. Did I mention Converge? Yep, Italian Converge lovers unite as The […]
I can’t pretend to have heard this bands prior apparently grindcore based offerings, so I cant tell you how The Healing Process compares, but what I can you that this is the best album Dying Fetus never did. With members of two of my favorite Canadian bands, the mighty Neuraxis and In Dying Days, Despised […]
2005 is shaping up to be a monstrous year for doom, as Shape of Despair, Esoteric, Novembers Doom, Pantheist, Draconian, and now Ireland’s finest musical export have fans lining up for Zoloft prescriptions all over the world. After the superb The Sullen Sulcus, Mourning Beloveth jump to tiny German label, Grau (a sub label of […]
Frantic Bleep Feature ImageThe Sense Apparatus (The End Records) If prior albums from The End by Peccatum, Arcturus, Winds, Age of Silence and Madder Mortem bored you with their overly artistic facades, Frantic Bleep is just for you. Culling elements from all the aforementioned acts and even borrowing members from Madder Mortem (Kjetil Fosseid, Daniel […]
In 2003, O Solitude was one of my favorite albums and I actually thought the band broke up after than superb effort. Well, apparently they relocated the UK (from Belgium) and had a lineup shuffle. Thank god, ‘cos now possibly the finest funeral doom band around can follow up their excellent debut with a suitably […]
So far this year one of my very favorite albums has been the debut album from Ligeia, Your Ghost as a Gift. And while most roll their eyes at the very mention of metalcore, the Ken Susi produced effort does everything right. So when given a chance to see the Massachuset’s youngsters on their current tour with From A Second Story Window, Dead to Fall and Ed Gein, I made the trip to the Creepy Crawl in downtown St. Louis to brave my first ‘metalcore’ show and interview with the bright eyed and youthful group of kids in their tour bus…
Kaamos -Lucifer Rising Feature Image(Candlelight ) In 2002, amid all the Swedish retro hoopla of Bloodbath’s Resurrection Through Carnage and even original recordings from Swedish veterans Centinex, Vomitory and Fleshcrawl, one band lithely slipped under the radar that year with their self titled debut. Now, personally I didn’t care for it that much especially compared […]