I’m pretty sure the same virus that infected Gothenburg in the mid-’90s has mutated an infected musicians on the East Coast. Some of the music comes from that area is just phenomenal, and for me at the top of the rapidly growing pack are newcomers Beyond The Sixth Seal.BTSS started as a thrash band in […]
I personally had no idea Bathory were doing a new album, let alone a two part double release (Part II is to be released early in 2003). When I initially got this album in the mail and tore into it with glee, I was full of youthful memories so you’ll have to excuse my initial […]
Here’s an interesting one, Polish death metal ala Behemoth and Lost Soul, mixed with Nocturnus-like futuristic “spacey” synths. The result isn’t all bad, which is mainly due to the merits of convincing death metal played under all the superfluous keyboards. The mix is a little odd but the synth/death mix never is as engaging or […]
What a perfect name for a doom/death album. Slovakia’s Thalarion have been one of the bands I’ve always liked as they have perfected the “beauty and the beast” sound, mixing guttural death metal, atmospheric doom elements, and a hint of goth for three albums now. With their fourth album Tunes Of Despondency, Thalarion appears to […]
Quick. Name five current good recognized death metal bands from The Netherlands that excludes Pestilence and Gorefest. Well, Sinister, God Dethroned…er, Occult. Here was one of those little surprises that arrived in my mailbox, along with a huge dose of skepticism, mainly due to the band name and horrid cover. I.N.R.I. stands for Insane Non-Commercial […]
Recently I’ve been wading knee deep in mediocre death metal and to be honest with you, the constant pounding, blasting and gurgling was wearing thin. What I needed was a musical respite of sorts, something uplifting, glorious and stress free. I needed some Italian power metal! While it would be easy to call Thy Majestie […]
Council Of The Fallen is the blackened death metal project involving numerous high-profile names from the U.S. death metal scene. We have Sean Baxter (Broken Hope, Em Simfonia), drummer Derek Roddy (Malevolent Creation, Hate eternal, Divine Empire, Nile), and Kevin Quirion (Aurora Borealis) – all U.S. death metal veterans, so I was more than a […]
Ah yes, Nile. The band that has recently joined the “trendy to hate club” (founded by Cradle Of Filth). Whether it’s the false pretense of the Egyptian “gimmick”, the large label affiliation, or after two good albums, fickle metal fans are ready to move onto the next band, Nile are suddenly a hotbed of criticism. […]
Let me tell you something – The End Records has become a monster label in U.S. metal. Not content with Epoch of Unlight and Scholomance reigning American black metal, Green Carnation taking the doom scene by storm and Virgin Black bringing goth and darkwave to their collective knees, The End now gives you Winds, a surefire […]
Here is a seven piece band from the Netherlands that is attempting to join Slovakia’s Thalarion and Seventh Moon as the top bands in the emotive doom/goth/death genre that uses female vocals to complement the male growl (the beauty and the beast effect). While this a decent album within that ever so cumbersome genre, Thalarion […]
It wasn’t until I discovered the literal translation of the album’s title that the full depth of this album really hit me. After numerous listens, the darker, heavier approach had me a little stunned, and to be honest, a little disappointed. But after discovering Vansinnesvisor , means “Songs of Madness” (or “Lunacy”), it all came […]
You’ve got to give Metal Blade credit. Rather than searching overseas for the latest In Flames clone, they have simply stayed in the homeland and discovered an In Flames clone, and very good they are too.BYE resides in the mini Sweden we called Massachusetts, which is suddenly home to a plethora of death metal bands. […]
God Was Created is the second album from Arizona’s Vehemence, and upon looking upon the typical death metal cover and spiky logo, I was bracing for another assault of U.S.-styled Immolation copycat blasting or Suffocation worship. Man, was I fucking wrong! Instead I was graced with quite possibly one of the best U.S. death metal […]
Top 3 reasons why this album is fucking amazing. 1) It’s produced at Sunlight Studios by Tomas Skogsberg. 2) It has a sample of a steel clashing battle. 3) It has the most killer, blood-boiling riffs this side of The Crown. Ok that’s pretty much it, but I guess your wanting a little more detail.This […]
“Anyone who isn’t dead or from another plane of existence, would do well to cover their ears, right about now.” This superbly appropriate sample from the move “Dogma,” opens the song “Inhuman,” on Origin’s second album, Informis, Infinitas, Inhumanitas. Never has a sample been so fitting. I’ll be the first to tell you, I wasn’t […]
All hail albums covers that have heads on spikes! Vomitory are a well-known but cult veteran death metal band from Sweden and have released this year’s equivalent to Fleshcrawl‘s Soulskinner. Pure old school unabashed death metal; no frills, no intro, no atmospherics and you know what? It kicks ass. Blood Rapture is Vomitory‘s fourth album […]
During the Swedish death metal explosion of the early ’90s, after the initial assault of Entombed and Carnage and Dismember, a second wave of acts erupted. Grave, Seance and Unleashed found the coattails, and promptly were taken for a ride. Each act attained some kind of recognition and status, with perhaps Unleashed being the most […]
The U.S. has seen the melodic metal/hardcore mix blossom into a small musical renaissance, so it comes as no surprise than as with most musical phenomena, Europe follows suite, which is actually a reverse in trends, as the U.S. is normally the one a few years behind. So, here come Germany’s FearMyThoughts, with their second […]
Yes, Grief Of Emerald’s first three (four of you count the as of yet unreleased debut) albums did sound like Dimmu Borgir. Yes, they appear to be riding to coattails of other more commercially viable bands, and, yes, they do use keyboards. However with Christian Termination, the Swedes appear to have possibility shaken loose from […]
By all accounts, this should have been an album I truly loved. Fantasy-based epic metal is my vice, and when confronted with a moniker like Battlelore, and song titles like “Swordmaster,” “Raging Goblin” and “Ride with the Dragons,” I’m pretty much a child in a candy store. That is providing the music fits in with […]
Grindcore. Punk. Humor. Elements that have all been successfully melded into one 27-minute explosion of crusty blastbeats, power chord riffs and ridiculous non-traditional grindcore lyrics. I actually first heard Sweden’s Birdflesh on Relapse’s Swedish Assault album, and as a result dug up this album, their second “real” album. I’m not sure about the age of […]
Finland is fast becoming a hotbed of musical growth that rivals the Swedish explosion of the early and mid nineties, bands like Kalmah, Children of Bodom, Moonsorrow and Finntroll are putting Finland on the metal map as Sentenced and Amorphis did nearly a decade ago. Leading this creative charge is Finntroll. By fusing folk music and black metal with their native “humppa” or “polka” melodies, they have created a sound that is hard to define, yet enjoyable to listen to. It blatantly defies the inherent seriousness of black metal, but ala Bal-Sagoth; they don’t care and are content to put out the music they want to regardless of the genre restrictions. Last year’s Jaktens Tid, was my top album for 2001 and was a natural progression from the debut. I visited with guitarist Somnium to discuss this seemingly out of place group of trollsters.
There must be some foul work afoot in England. First Akercocke, now Anaal Nathrakh. England is producing some supremely evil and menacing music once again. This two-piece project follows hot on the heels of the recent neo-black metal craze, with also a nod to the industrial programming of The Berzerker and the result is some […]
The Kim Anderson-ish cover art should clue you in as to the direction this previously very doom/goth melodic death metal outfit have taken with their second album. And yes, they have evolved and matured, but to be honest I think the new material suits them better than the hodgepodge mix of musical styles that was […]
I still listen to The Grand Leveler, along with Gorefest’s Erase; they ranks as one of my favorite all time Euro-Death albums. Since The Grand Leveler, however, Benediction has done little to recreate the magic on that release. I am happy to say that Organized Chaos presents a return to form for Benediction. After two […]