American Death Thrash is the perfect title for this 10 song split between Oklahoma’s Sacrificial Slaughter and California’s Enfuneration. 10 tracks, 5 from each of good ol’ fashioned American metal, with Sacrificial Slaughter firmly gripping the thrash element and Enfuneration being more of the death metal side. Sacrificial Slaughter are the more veteran act with […]
A handful of lesser known, lower profile releases of brutal/technical death metal have grabbed my attention of late; the likes of Pyrrhon, Nocturnal Torment, and Parasitized have shown that there is still plenty of new bands from unexpected realms delivering material to compare to big boys like Origin, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Spawn of Possession and such, […]
“Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.” -Denis Diderot. Hailing from the state of Washington, Bréag Naofa (Gaelic for ‘holy lie’) are a relatively new act comprised from members of other Washington based based acts Trial, Sinking Ships and Love Is Red. And for […]
If fans of old school Swedish death metal thought 2011 was a good year for the genre, boy are you going to enjoy 2012! With Horrendous‘ excellent debut already out, this year is slated to see releases by Zombie Inc., Revel in Flesh, Black Breath, Massive Assault, Blood Mortized, Megascavenger and this — the debut full-length […]
Empyreal Cycle is the second self-released effort from Slovenia’s Smargroth, a fantasy based (knights, dragons, wizards etc) melodic black metal band. And while they aren’t bringing anything really striking or new to the table, they perform their chosen style well enough to be checked out by fans of Dissection, Sargeist, Naglfar and other less extreme […]
From Sacred Plague Records, who brought us the excellent Black Hole of Calcutta LP, comes another vinyl slab of filthy, dirty analog crusty metal in the form of Chicago’s self described ‘crustards’, Krang. As with some other Sacred Plague releases I’m getting familiar with, Krang play a noisy, dirty amalgamation of thrash/crust/punk and death metal […]
So, I’m playing a bit of catch up here having just recently received CDs from new label Blast Head Records, based out of Canada and Belgium’s Shiver Records, so expect a few late 2011 releases, seeing as they sent actual CDs not digital files. First up is the first release from Blast Head Records, the […]
In the Midst of Lion have been busy little bees since I reviewed their 2009 Strikefirst records debut, Out of Darkness. They of course moved on and up to Facedown Records and some time in 2010, released Heart of Man, which I never got around to reviewing, and then in late 2011 released album number […]
So the band Liberteer came to my attention after reviewing the recent Beaten to Death album, a grindcore album that was grindcore with a difference, and so is the debut album from Liberteer. Comprised of Matt Widener, the grindcore lineage is certainly here considering Widener’s involvement in the likes of Cretin, Citizen, Exhumed and The […]
There’s a very fine line as a critic between liking something and disliking something. A production issue, a vocal issue, a song writing issue or any number of things that can sway an opinion between praise and disappointment. Case and point; 40 Watt Sun’s largely revered album, The Inside Room and Pallbearer‘s debut album. Both cathartic, […]
So Mexico is getting in on this retro death metal resurgence with Ominous Crucifix and their take on cavernous, gnarly simple old school Incantation-y death metal. And while Ominous Crucifix don’t really do anything wrong on The Spell of Damnation, the album is still a pretty average effort resulting in one of FDA Rekotz’s weaker […]
So being a huge fan of Gorefest I had to check out the second album from The 11th Hour, a doom metal project featuring former Gorefest (and current Hail of Bullets) drummer Ed Warby and guitarist Frank Harthoon. That respectable duo is joined by Officium Triste growler Pim Blankenstein, who brings his super deep, typical […]
I’ve made no bones about the fact that I’m not a huge fan of A Plea For Purging‘s shift from awesome, twiddly shreddy metalcore to more serious, personal djent styled music. I have not really cared for the band since 2009’s Depravity, and frankly haven’t really cared to, as in my opinion nothing will top […]
Israel’s Total Rust Music has carved out a nice little niche for themselves on the black/doom/sludge genre with a number of quality releases from the likes of Highgate, Lords of Bukkake, Pyramido, Funeralium and such. 2012 looks to be of to a similarly high quality start with a trio of releases by Spain’s Tort, French black […]
You know if I’m reviewing a September 2011 release here in 2012, it has to be good, and holy shit is this good. Hailing from Norway, Beaten to Death consists of a few of Norway’s veteran players from short lived or middle tier bands like Insense, She Said Destroy, oh and drummer who has played […]
A Hope For Home‘s last record, Realis was a decent, if slightly whiny visage of shimmery Christian post-rock. So here they are with album number three, and it’s a vast, beautiful improvement that’s on par with Hands‘ Give Me Rest — as far as gorgeous, introspective Christian metal goes. Now that almost everyone has left or […]
So back in 2010 I reviewed the self-released debut from Portugal’s Karnak Seti, and it was a surprisingly good melodic death metal effort that imbued the the genre’s once hailed stylings and even reminded me a little of Disillusion‘s landmark debut. Well, the band were kind enough to send me the follow-up, In Harmonic Entropy, […]
As usual at this time of year, I get a few CDs for review that came out late the year before. Such is the case with Ahdistuksen Aihio Productions who sent me Ave Maria‘s Chapter I and this, the debut from Finland’s Saturnian Mist. And while Ave Maria left me unsettled but only slightly impressed, Gnostikoi […]
Here’s yet another addition to the growing collection of fine but quirky, experimental German black metal. This time in the form of duo ‘A’ (guitars/vocals) and ‘C’ (drums) and their Ave Maria debut, Chapter I. I don’t have a whole lot of reference points for this act, but it’s safe to say they definitely sound […]
So here’s another reason to own a record player (and a cassette player); Sacred Plague Records. And one of their recent releases is the second effort from Chico, California’s Black Hole of Calcutta, a noisy, primal punk/grind/hardcore collaboration featuring members of The Makai, Transient and Mammoth Torta. Named after a 1756 incident where 146 prisoners […]
Blood Mortized‘s self released 2009 debut was one of my coolest old school Swedish death metal discoveries during the genre’s current revival. And though featuring former and current members of Amon Amarth and Crypt of Kerberos, the band didn’t seem to have as high of a profile as some of their contemporaries, but with an […]
Anyone has a Latin dictionary? Here is the impressive debut from Minnesota’s Atrum Inritus and as you can tell from the moniker, album title and track titles like “Aegrus Evert”, ” Sacramentum Exeuntium”, ” Tenebris Descendi” and “Ephemera”, there’s no doubt about what we are dealing with here: Black metal. While all the above and […]
Listen, I’ll readily admit to being one of those shallow, close minded types that judges a book by its cover, or a band by its moniker. And quite frankly a band with the name The Gardenerz wasn’t something I was ready to dive into. It’s the same reason I’ve never listened to Weekend Nachos and […]
Well fuck! That didn’t take long! After kicking my ass for a majority of 2011 with the likes of Entrails, Cryptborn, Uncanny, Miasmal, Undead Creep, Corpsessed, Gorephilia and such, Dark Descent Records, a mere two fucking days into 2012, has unleashed yet another gem of awesome old school death metal. Despite the label and PR […]
Despite being around since 1991 and with 6 full-length releases under their belt, Germany’s apparent death metal stalwarts Dead are new to me. But after hearing Hardnaked…but Dead, I can’t say I’m too bothered by the fact that I have missed out on their 20 year history. With a tongue in cheek grooving sense of […]