First off, if you haven’t not checked out Trap Them’s debut LP, Sleepwell Deconstructor, released earlier this year on Trash Art ! go do so now. The band, featuring former and current members of Backstabbers Inc. and December Wolves deliver Nasum styled grindcore meets Entombed death ‘n’ roll meets Converge and Pig Destroyer modern aggro […]

Ho hum, here’s some straight edge, ankle bearing, angry at the world, every one who isn’t straight edge sucks, hardcore. It’s typically beefy and crunchy and will appease the hoodie wearing masses who enjoy XBishopX, XRepresentX and other XclichedX straight edge hardcore bands. Opening with the now over used “Unleash Hell” sample from Gladiator (there […]

While far from the worst in the recent slew of gimmick laden tech grind death core, Germany’s War From A Harlot’s Mouth is still a fairly run of the mill foray into screaming growling, breakdown heavy pseudo grindcore/death metal played by angry kids with guitars and a love for silly song names. Despite injecting some […]

While no instrumental metal expert or aficionado, I really enjoyed my first exposure to Virginia’s oddly named Souvenir’s Young America. Though superficially they play an expected form of lush, instrumental post rock a la Tides or Pelican, the very subtle injections of an almost Ennio Morricone-like Old Western undercurrent make the affair sound like a […]

So Profound Lore has made up for the recent Caina release with this draining slab of ultra sludge/doom from the UK’s Atavist-and folks imagine playing Iron Monkey’s Our Problem LP backwards and at half speed while having 3 tons of concrete poured on you, and you might be close to Atavist’s take on painfully crawling […]

Ugh. So now the Italians are jumping on the emo/metalcore bandwagon with a blatant Atreyu meets pop punk (Green Day, Yellowcard, etc) rip off in the form of Airway, who with their first full length album (after an EP of course) deliver the expected level of ot Topic teeny core suckage. Folks, unless you like […]

So here it is. Arguably the most anticipated death metal albums of the year from one of the genre’s most respected and revered acts-and if you could tell from the cover art and album title, it’s a true return to form. Personally I found Frozen In Time to be a tired plodding release that reeked […]

I’ve always thought of Animosity as the deathcore/hardcore equivalent of Decapitated; they released their impressive debut, Shut it Down when they were 15 years old, and thought have not yet matched Decapitated’s outputs yet, with the slightly under helming and overly chaotic Empires, the band, with Animal, looks to be rising to the same level […]

Metal Blade/Black Market Activities Either Metal Blade/ BMA have reached the bottom of the spazz/tech/grind barrel or this is some sort of Halloween joke. Chicago’s Dance Club Massacre play the now popular herky jerky, screamy, spazzy form of grindcore as plied by the likes of Destroyer Destroyer, Heavy Heavy Low Low, Arsonists Get All The […]

From ever improving Israeli label Totalrust comes this rather impressive slab of sick French black doom from an act that features members of Heol Telwen, Ataraxie, Hyadningar, Mourning Dawn as well as suicidal German legends Bethlehem. This is 6 tracks and over 75 minutes of scrawling, twisted, painfully crawling doom with a tangible influence of […]

You know that Geico caveman commercial where the caveman goes “Yeah, I have a response..uh…What?”-that’s my response to this album. First off, this Italian band actually has no name or moniker but goes by the logo of a face, much like Prince, the name ‘Illogo’ is merely used for identification purposes and in their own […]

Oh dear, it looks like Profound Lore’s recent streak of excellence (Portal, The Angelic Process, Alcest, Amber Asylum, Cobalt, Atavist) has finally come to an end with the release of the second album from this UK based, ambient one man black metal project. So this Andrew Curtiss-Brignell fellow has a quite a few demos and […]

Ambitious post rocker/shoegazers Rosetta made quite a splash with their debut, The Galilean Satellites, especially with its 2 discs that can supposedly be played simultaneously for a complete experience (if anyone has ever done this, please let me know how it is). So here is the follow up, and much like equally talented and influenced […]

You’d expect a little more from Galy and especially from a band featuring Alexandre Leblanc of Neuraxis/Atheretic fame, but I guess when you are in two highly complex bands, this sort of downtuned, simplified death metal tinged hardcore could be construed as some sort of alternate release of musical desires that you other projects can’t […]

The whole Netherlands/Austrian area is a hotbed of Goth metal, sticking to the simple formula of hot operatic chick A + lush production + synths +competent faceless musicians + a mix of peppy bouncy songs and slower somber ballads = band X, that has produced bands like After Forever, Epica, Edenbridge, Visions of Atlantis, Elis […]

This tasty little collection from Galy is must have for fans of Fuck the Facts who have simply been unable to keep up with their myriad of splits and such and it just cements how talented and varied this Ottawa act has been over their career. Along with the 21 tracks from their splits with […]

Much like label and country mates Obscure, Turkey’s Decimation singled out a genre they like and rather than improve and expand on it, they simply said “Let’s play that”. In this case it’s a form of Immolation, Incantation styled death metal, and while not quite as impressively copy cat and proficient as Obscure’s black metal, […]

There are very few bands that leave an indelible imprint on my psyche and move me to the point of tangible ‘uncomfortableness’. Australia’s Portal is one of those bands. While some may construe the band’s atonal, muddy and chaotic form of grimy death metal nothing more than structureless noise, I personally find the band’s material […]

After being chewed up and spit out by the Major Label grinder, metalcore pioneers Poison The Well return to the ‘independent’ scene with their fourth full length album for the far more appropriate Ferret Music. And while the band is still a far cry from their seminal The Opposites of Decemberdebut, their return to the […]

What would you expect from a super group that comprises of vocalist T. Roy Medlin (Sourvein), bassist Dixie Dave Collins (Weedeater), guitarist Vince Burke (Beaten Back To Pure) and drummer Erik Larson (Alabama Thunderpussy)? If you said ultra sludgy, rumbling, doomy Southern drenched girth, then you would be right. Even with the tangible influences from […]

While I’m not totally loving Dimentianon’s (formerly known as The Forgotten) form of chaotic, garage blackened death metal, I can appreciate its DIY delivery and primal intensity for what it is. This should appeal to fans of Goatwhore and Hellhammer mixed with Mayhem/Darkthrone or demo era Anaal Nathrakh, with maybe a splattering of retro underground […]

With mysterious, esoteric cover art and inlay art, you immediately get the impression that on their third release, Chicago’s Yakuza are gunning for something really special, but unfortunately they fall victim to their own ambitions. While Samsara was a perfect mix of post rock, tech metal, Mastodon and John Coltrane, Transmutations sees the band expand […]

Here’s one of those releases that make me question Metal Blade sometimes; another angular burly hardcore act along the lines of A Life Once Lost, (former label mates) Achilles, The Minor Times, Apiary and The Handshake Murders. The Dregs is competent, heavy and angry but delivering absolutely nothing new or original. Of course, if you’re […]

Listen, I’m all for retro death metal, especially if it features Jeff Nardone of Goatlord. I’m all for reliving the past glories and throwback grit of early 90’s death metal. What I’m not for is if that throw back is a throwback to JL America death metal. Boring, lifeless, forgetful and dreary, lo-fi, mid paced […]

Despite their 25th year anniversary and stable of veteran respected death metal acts (Bolt Thrower, Vader, Amon Amarth, Cannibal Corpse, Vomitory, Fleshcrawl, God Dethroned etc) it’s bands like Winter Solstice, Machinemade God, A Love Ends Suicide, Phoenix Mourning, Neaera, If Hope Dies, The Red Death and such that seem to garner Metal Blade (and their […]