The grimmest of the grimmity grim and the Kvltest of the Kvlt black metal, and it’s on Southern Lord? Talk about the law of opposites attract. With an ex-Kvist member and current members of Vulture Lord and Asmegin in its ranks, Urgehal as if you could not judge from the cover are a pure and […]
More religious themed metalcore following the likes of Symphony In Peril, Zao, The Showdown and Norma Jean, but unfortunately despite a valiant and impressively powerful effort, Alove For Enemies just don’t quite measure up to their peers. The main reason for their slightly lacking result is that despite a super punchy production and a plethora […]
Ever since Mithotyn were sent out on a burning ship into the Gulf of Bothnia, many bands have clamoured to claim the crown as Viking metal’s undisputed king. Some like Hin Onde and Twin Obscenity have failed, others like Enslaved have simply given up the battle and progressed. Only Thyrfing have truly flirted with Viking metal brillaince consistenly, unchallenged for the vacant throne. Until now. With the realese of Voimasta ja Kunniasta (or Of Strength and Honour in English), Finland’s Moonsorrow have catapaulted to the top of the Viking metal heap with a brilliant second album. It is an album deeply rooted in Viking culture and Norse mythology with songs that envisage heroism, bravery, family, life and death. I had the pleasure of visiting with Baron Tarwonen and Ville Seponpoika Sorvali, two of Moonsorrow’s warriors, who are obviously beaming with pride from the superb opus.
I thought Trivium’s debut Ashes to Inferno held a lot of promise and so did Roadrunner apparently, snapping them up to try and reinvigorate their flagging metal roster, and they picked a good band to do it as Trivium seem while possibly herded under the vast metalcore banner, would actually seem to fit in with […]
C’mon people. DO you REALLY need me to review this? What are you expecting? Trip hop? Cyber metal? Classical music? This is a Nile album fer chrissakes, and that alone will essentially dictate whether you buy this or not based on your opinion of the last three albums. My only dilemma is dressing up this […]
A couple of years ago Bloodbath started a mini phenomenon by paying homage to classic Swedish death metal albums such as Left Hand Path and Like an Ever Flowing Stream. By gathering a group of influential, talented musicians the album was well received in no due part to the source material. Others followed; Murder Squad, Incapacity, Ribspreader,Facebreaker as well as other veteran bands still successfully pawning that style, delivering solid albums (Dismember, Fleshcrawl, Centinex, Grave)after many years. Enter the Fins. With arguably equally a killer influence on modern metal, Amorphis and Sentenced had their own special niche in death metal, so a special group of Fins decided it was their turn to pay homage to the Swedish classics in the form of super group, ChaosBreed. If the name doesn’t give it away (a track from Entombed’s seminal Clandestine), ChaosBreed is a pure throwback death metal album, Finnish style. Complete with a Sunlight buzz and infectious grooves, the simple yet aptly titled Brutal is the collaborative effort of vocalist Taneli Jarva (The Black League, ex Sentenced), guitarist Esa Holipainen (Amorphis), guitarist Marko Tarvonen (Moonsorrow), drummer Nalle Osterman (Gandalf) and bassist Oppu Laine (ex –Amorphis), and is in fact…brutal. I caught up with Esa Holipainen to get the lowdown in this killer album as well as the band’s take on the classic era they captured perfectly.
European hardcore seems to be growing in stage dives and spin kicks, and more so, it seems to be more influenced by mid 90’s hardcore and old school brutal death metal than the melodic metal influenced stuff the US is chucking out now. One such band of brothers of Instil from the Netherlands. Their debut album Fire Reflects in Ashes, is a rumbling, chugging barrage of sweat and blood that sounds more American that most American bands who are in turn trying to sound European. It was actually one of the most underrated slabs of heaviness I heard last year, so I thought I’d talk to voclasit Rene Smit to not only find out more about the band, but also give them a little well deserved exposure…
For some reason, Kansas’s Origin seems to be one of those bands the metal community has singled out for a rather undeserved level of internet harassment. Sure, on their self-titled debut they were a mindless vortex of speed, but on follow up Informis, Infinitas, Inhumanitas, I really thought the band improved and focused somewhat although […]
So the label change from Voice of Life to the uber experimental Prophecy Productions looks to have made a slight impact on this German band that displayed huge promise on their Swanlike debut. The main change? The vocals. Vocalist/drummer Niko Knappe, despite saying otherwise in an interview I did with him, has now adopted the […]
For a label that already has Unearth, the signing of this band and release of their debut album seems odd considering that this band are virtually identical in every way to Unearth. With the exception of a sterner vocalist and a more gravelly production, Winter Solstice have the very same dual Swedish melodic death metal […]
At the end of my review for this band’s debut EP, Means by Which the End is Justified, on Love Lost Records, I stated that a full length album from this Florida based, Dillinger Escape Plan inspired tech core band would be pretty impressive. I didn’t know it would be on Metal Blade, but I […]
To me, God Dethroned have never quite recaptured the glorious mix of brutality and melody displayed on 1997’s The Grand Grimoire, with a string of mediocre releases following that great album up. Last years Into the Lungs of Hell came the closest of all the subsequent releases, but still didn’t touch the sophomore album in […]
Canada’s favorite hardcore sons return with imaginatively titled II to follow up the buzz causing debut One. Playing a form of stark, barren post hardcore, that I call ‘minimalist core’, Cursed’s noisy Converge meets newer Entombed meets Motorhead form of brooding metal isn’t for the casual hardcore/punk fans as it’s dirty, grimy and vitriolic. With […]
Adding to 2005’s already promising death metal crop, come Austria’s Belphegor with their 5th blasphemous offering. While this is my first exposure to this rather revered European act, it won’t be my last as Goatreich-Fleshcult is a prime of example of death metal done Fuckin’ A right. With a hint of black metal (a few […]
What’s not to like about an album emblazoned with the logo of my beloved New Orleans Saints? After almost 4 years of silence, the follow up to 2001’s ‘return to form’ album Sonic Excess in its Purest Form is here and ready to sit on your chest and slap you repeatedly. With their 8th album […]
There are few things in the reviewing world as satisfying as a really well done, no frills death metal album. Oh sure, discovering new bands and experiencing originality and genre expanding acts is nice, but the visceral, pulse quickening feeling of perfectly rendered death metal is still a rewarding experience. And Chaostream is such an […]
I deliberately reviewed this album next to Merlin’s lackluster effort to show that Great White North has some decent bands on their roster besides Merlin, Divina Enema, and Aggression AD. OK, so they have Fuck The Facts which saves them immeasurably, but they also have this nifty little Canadian outfit called Paroxysm. With artwork done […]
Holy shit. Two major league things going on here. First, a great release on Crash Music. Second, a filthy, piss ridden exercise in death/thrash from Finland of all places. One part gritty Entombed, one part At The Gates and one part grimy leather and spikes retro black thrash a la Bestial Mockery, Pyuria deliver a […]
Residing on a label formed by members of He Who Corrupts, you should have little doubt as to how noisy this 11 song, 10 minute “album” is. Strictly for those that become erect listening to the likes of Daughters, As the Sun Sets and The Number 12 Looks Like You, Illinois’ Tower of Rome is […]
Good things come to those who wait. Originally released on Empire Records in 2003, this superb slab of Polish brutality was licensed by Adipocere for a wider release in late 2004. Great move as it will expose more of the world to one of Poland’s undiscovered death metal gems. While Vader and Behemoth arguably stake […]
If there’s any band that can rebound from the ill timing of a album called Dead Yuppies, (it came out right after 9/11) it’s NYHC veterans, no, NYHC pioneers Agnostic Front. After almost a two decades of angry, genre defining political rants and brotherhood, the Front return on a major label with a new facelift […]
Rewarded for the widespread acclaim of Zos Kia Cultus, Poland’s Behemoth were promoted from Olympic Records to the big daddy, Century Media and also arguably surpassed Vader as Poland’s most important extreme export. So how do you follow that kind of success up? You don’t. You merely deliver what’s expected and continue with the sound […]
Littered with metalcore clichés in the form of calligraphy album title and forlorn song titles, my expectations weren’t to high for this album ,especially considering the rather average effort that preceded it, the death metal tinged metalcore musings of Black Sands of the Hourglass. However, with a change in label (from Tribunal to Eulogy) and […]
While most of Finland is obsessed with trolls and tooth harps, only a handful of Finnish acts have veered into more brutal territory, Scent of Flesh being the only recent band that immediately springs to mind above and beyond older acts like Disgrace and early manifestations of Amorphis and Sentenced. Until now. Enter Sotajumala (Finnish […]
With the album opening salvo of ‘The Shining’, France’s Anorexia Nervosa graced my ears with one of the most epic, grandiose and powerful song openings I’ve heard in 2004. The sheer scale of the synth laden dramatics and thunderous buzz of the guitars is the introduction to one superb album and a black metal album, […]