Southwicked is a multinational death metal act that features some Belgian dudes from obscure bands like Blood Haven and Shattered Skull and Allen West of Obituary/Six Feet Under fame. So its no surprise that a majority of Southwicked‘s debut album sounds a lot, no, JUST like West era Obituary and Six Feet Under. You’d think […]
Remember in the late 90s when In Flames and Dark Tranquility were exploding? When Children of Bodom were fresh and awesome and young energetic, but short lived melodic death metal bands like Lothlorien, Auberon, Ebony Tears, Embracing, and Eucharist were releasing killer albums? Well, if you long for those days of bouncy, busy, solo filled, […]
Much like The Great Old Ones‘ release, Al Azif, Sentinel the third release from Greece’s Spectral Lore is an awesome black metal surprise that mixes a multitude of recognized black metal styles and tropes, notably Memoria Vestusta II era Blut Aus Nord, Krallice and other more ambient, experimental and otherwordly black metal. Even with a […]
And the retro Swedish death metal hits keep coming with a second wave of bands like Malfeitor, Mass Burial, Corrosive Carcass, Unconsecrated, Bombs of Hades, Eroded and such continuing the quality laid down by bands like Entrails, Demonical, Bloodbath, Fatalist, Hail of Bullets and others. And while some may tire of the genre’s imminent saturation, […]
Melbourne’s Be’lakor have gone from unknown, unsigned band to one of the scene’s most respected and consistent bands. Having just released their third critically acclaimed album in Of Breath and Bone, the band is now entering pastures that find the tiny dependent Australian band playing doomy, melodic death metal mentioned in the same breath as the like of Insomnium, Opeth and other European luminaries. And I’ve watched and listened the whole time, seeing the band grow and become one of metal’s elite acts. All the while I’ve stayed in pretty consistent contact with the band’s founder and keyboardist Steve Merry who was once again, more than willing to answer a few questions about Be’lakor, the new album and what the future holds for Be’lakor…
Hailing from Minnesota, Lungs are a sludgy, down tempo, post rock/doom band that would fit nicely on Halo of Flies Records, next to a band like Northless , even more so considering their vinyl based output here. This self titled 10″ release consists of two songs, the 7 minute “The Pith” and the 8 minute […]
Though many have thought melodic death metal dead for a few years now (thanks, In Flames), a few releases here in late 2011/2012 by the likes of Vale of Pnath, Pictured, December Flower, Darkness By Oath, Allegaeon and Karnak Seti have shown there’s a bit of life in the genre yet. And here is Italy’s […]
Hailing from my old college stomping grounds in Kansas City, Missouri, Solace and Stable are a group of young tech metallers cut from the same cloth as bands like Between the Buried and Me, Woe of Tyrants, The Demonstration, Conducting from the Grave, With Passion and such; they play a form of shred filled, melodic […]
Here’s a vinyl split LP with some amazing potential. Light Bearer‘s first LP, 2011’s Lapsus was one of the very best releases of last year while Wisconsin’s Northless have steadily improved over the two releases I have heard in 2010’s No Quarter for the Damaged and last year’s Clandestine Abuse LP. I’m not going to […]
Along with Dark Descent and Willowtip, Deepsend Records are one of my favorite independent US based labels, especially when it comes to pure death metal. They’ve had a solid spring summer releasing quality albums by the likes of Offending, Synapses, the always reliable Dawn of Demise and even got into the reissue game with reissues […]
Italy has a surprisingly solid technical/brutal death metal scene. Of course, there’s the more obvious monsters like Fleshgod Apocalypse and Hour of Penance, but if you dig a little deeper and actually list bands like Antropofagus, Gory Blister, Illogicist, Vomit the Soul, Unconventional Disruption, Humangled, Psychofagist just to name a few, you start to realize […]
Hailing from Texas and featuring The Faceless drummer Lyle Cooper, Absvrdist play a form of vicious modern grind/crust that would sit well on Southern Lord. It will appeal to fans of Enabler and any other of Southern Lord’s crust/hardcore bands, and it’s got just a dash of black metal (though that might just be the […]
I really kind of wanted to like the debut from Vancouver’s Tribune a whole lot more. They seem like a fun loving group of guys that don’t take themselves too seriously, and the music contained on Elder Lore/Dark Arts is an eclectic mix of thrash, heavy metal, metalcore and melodic death metal. That is also the […]
It does not take a genius to figure out the style of metal played by Melbourne, Australia’s Whoretopsy; look at the moniker, the cover, the album title and song titles like “Cardiac Defecation”, “Potty Mouth”, “Necrobordello” and “Intimate Disgust”. What we have here brutal, ultra misogynistic death metal of the slammiest variety. I’m pretty sure […]
You know those anti-meth PSA posters where they show a normal person and their progression each month as they become addicted to meth? Well, one listen to Drug Honkey‘s fourth album might result in the same, tooth rotting, skin itching, hair losing, gaunt results. In fact, Drug Honkey might be onto a new sub genre of […]
Once again, Halo of Flies Records ensures that I keep a record player in my possession by releasing an impressive 2 track split 12″ from California sludge doom act Amarok and Polish doom band Enth. Both bands are new to me, but I’ll be certainly looking out for releases from both in the future. I’ll […]
Despite the recent run of excellent album reissues both needed and unnecessary, there has been a large hole in my metal collection and in my heart. As much as I’ve loved and needed reissues of the likes of God Macabre, Burial, Gorement, Uncanny, Convulse and such, there’s been one release missing; Desecrator‘s sole, 1991 album, […]
Last year, Minnesota’s Your Memorial dropped one of the year’s best metalcore records, Christian or otherwise. And since then Facedown Records has struggled with a bit of staleness with their subsequent releases and even lost one of their best bands, Sleeping Giant, to another label. Well, Your Memorial is here as the savior to Facedown […]
Back in 2008 Sweden’s Necrovation dropped Breed Deadness Blood, an authentic, throwback but modern Swedish death metal record that was retro, before retro was vogue. It was widely regarded as a new classic of sorts and was a deservingly acclaimed record. 4 Years later Necrovation are back and have added a second guitarist, and those […]
Back in 2009 we reviewed the self titled, self released debut from this Australian doom outfit, and by most accounts it was a solid effort of European styled doom/death metal culling from the British and Finnish school of the genre, recalling the likes of My Dying Bride, Anathema, Shape of Despair and such. I recall […]
This spring/summer has seen the German death metal scene deliver the goods with the likes of Tombthroat, Sophicide and the second release from Deadborn. All three delivering something a little different, with Tombthroat going for the throat, Sophicide making people forget Necrophagist and with Deadborn you’ve got a band that lie some where in between. […]
So back in April I attended a show featuring All Shall Perish, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Carnifex, The Contortionist and Conducting From the Grave. Admittedly, the main attractions were All Shall Perish and Fleshgod Apocalypse, as while I own all of Carnifex’s albums, they aren’t a band I really crave — being a solid if unspectacular deathcore outfit. That being said their last CD, Until I Feel Nothing, as with many of their contemporaries, upped the death metal ante and in the case of Carnifex, a very slight symphonic element was added, giving the band a more dramatic, epic feel. So before the show, I hung out with amicable drummer and founder Shawn Cameron to discuss, Victory Records, fans and the dreaded D word…
Recently I’ve been on a bit of a symphonic black metal kick, dusting off the likes of Anorexia Nervosa, Skyfire, Stormlord, Arthemesia, Dagor Dagorath, Sirius, Covenant (when they had a a ‘C’) as well as good ol’ Dimmu and Cradle of Filth. And during this time, something struck me; Other than Carach Angren‘s Where the […]
So those of you currently enjoying the glut of old school metal bands fronted by smoky, female crooners (The Devils Blood, Christian Mistress, Witch Mountain, Jess and the Ancient Ones, Jex Thoth, Blood Ceremony, etc) here’s a short little EP that should appeal to you by way of the debut EP from Nevada’s Demon Lung […]
I had a hard time coming up with a description of Burnsred and their impressive debut album. So, I thought I’d simply lift the band’s own description of themselves as it sums the sound up perfectly: “Loosely fitting into the doom/sludge/post-metal genre, Burnsred play music which ebbs and flows through harmonic progressions, tempo changes, and […]