The Anja Offensive is turning into a heavy hitter in the black metal genre. With stellar releases by Antaeus, Secrets of the Moon, Watain, Katharsis and the amazing new Deathspell Omega, but with De Contemplanda Morte, there seems to be a drop off from the label’s brilliance. Two piece Mortuus consists of M. Hinze from […]

Despite containing members of the excellent Merrimack and Obscurus Advocam, French black metallers Glorior Belli are not quite in the French Elite, and actually share a sound more akin to Sweden’s Watain in that they play surprisingly restrained, straight forward, slightly repetitive but finely crafted black metal. Even with crawling opener “From Darkness There Springs […]

Tholus are an interesting band. Formed by drummer Dave Murray (Sculptured, Estradasphere) and some other relatively minor folks and friends as well as the involvement of Mars/NASA conspiracy theorist Richard Hogland (author of Monuments of Mars), they play a form of cosmic, celestial, mars based technical death metal rooted in Cynic, Disincarnate, Theory In Practice […]

Here’s an impressive slab of darkly sludgy, doomy, belligerent atonal hardcore adorned with some neat Tom Denny artwork (Mastodon, Yakuza, Soilent Green, Rwake, Kylesa). While The Dead See shares artwork with the above named bands, they are not too drastically different from those artists either. While most doomy hardcore is simply hardcore at its base […]

Old logo? Yup. Old Seagrave-ish cover? Yup. A pissed off LG Petrov? Yup. Blastbeats? Yup. ‘That” guitar tone? Yup. A complete return to form?… Almost. Truth is a much as I revere Entombed’s classic first two albums and have yet to really appreciate the much lauded Wolverine Blues, I really haven’t paid Entombed that much […]

While I really enjoyed this bands debut EP, Put On Your Rosy Red Glasses, my excitement for this lot has generally waned with each release. And with the band still languishing on a relatively minor metal label while countless other similar bands get snatched up by some of the ‘bigger’ labels, it seems to indicate […]

Hailing from Milwaukee, Protestant are one of the few original hardcore DIY bands out there and this release, containing their Make Peace With the Rope You Hang From, album as well as their split with Rhinocharge and a self released CD-R Highlight their creepy, sludgy, caustic and off kilter take on hardcore. After the intro […]

On their second album, Norway’s Octavia Sperati (now no longer an all female act with the addition of drummer Ivar Alver), continue their more doomy, Anti-Nightwish take on female fronted Goth metal, and continue to impress with some improved song writing growth. With an earthier, almost more stoner rock development from Winter Enclosure, these gals […]

Here’s solid re-release of this French shoegazer/post rock act’s debut album (originally released on Radar Swarm Records in 2006 and also as a 2LP Gatefold album by Atropine Records/E-Vinyl Record for you collectors out there), and while not on par with fellow Frenchmen Overmars, Nord is a sound addition to slightly more aggressive likes of […]

While there are plenty of big name death metal releases so far in 2007, (Nile, Behemoth, Immolation, etc) there’s one release that might slip under the radar but easily deserves your ear (as with Sarpanitum)-that is this debut full length record from Quebec’s Vengeful. Touted for fans of Crytopsy, Nile, Immolation and Gorguts, the band’s […]

Recently I have received a few atypical, sludgy hardcore releases from the likes of Protestant, The Dead See, The Fucking Wrath, Daymares and Florida’s own Christian two steppers, Seventh Star, who with The Undisputed Truth have given Facedown Records two killer Christian hardcore records in the first half of 2007 (The other being Sleeping Giant). […]

Someone at Century Media has some balls releasing Behemoth’s newest opus on the same day as Nile’s Ithyphallic, especially considering Nile started to surface as a reference for Behemoth’s last, slightly disappointing effort, Demigod. Well, Century Media must have known what they had here-an album that better than Demigod as almost as good as the […]

Here’s another of Candlelight’s deathcore records licensed from the UK’s excellent Siege of Amida’s records (Diskreet, Whitechapel, The Partisan Turbine and Knights of the Abyss), and while not the best release or most original album either label will release this year, it’s a competent and confident record of snarling, breakdown heavy deathcore. The formula is […]

As if to wet your appetite for the forth coming The Red Album from Baroness, At A Loss has teamed the rather hyped sludgy/stoner post rock act with a fellow Georgia act Unpersons to give you this tasty split of fuzzy, groovy and experimental sludge/stoner metal. The two lengthy tracks from Baroness will no doubt […]

In my humble opinion, Fall of the Leafe are one of metal’s underappreciated gems, even with the slight misstep of Volvere, Fermina and Vantage remain two of the best unheard album in the dark rock, Goth rock, hard rock genre (and their early work remains some of the best Goth/death metal around). And while most […]

Finland’s prolific, premier folk rocker return with album number four and after teasing me with three albums of superb folkish, pub rock littered with buzz killing somber moments, the forest clan have finally unleashed the ultimate, feel good, forest rock, beer swilling, sylph moshing fun fest. As I mentioned, Korpiklaani’s last three albums were a […]

Does anyone really care that Six Feet Under has released their seventh (original) album earlier this year? Apparently not; I didn’t get the usual hype from Metal Blade’s PR folks, just a discreet, late single package with little fanfare and I never saw much press online or in print concerning Commandent and I figured it […]

It’s been a while since I heard a great, traditional metalcore record (Life In Your Way’s Waking Giants is the last really great pure metalcore record I enjoyed). With so many bands either trying the death, grind or pop up their sound or just try too hard to be zany and different, its seems, actual […]

My apologies to the readership here, but things are going to be a bit ‘core’ for a while as I wade through my considerable pile of angry young men trying their hand at various offshoots of hardcore and metalcore, not to worry though Nile and Gorefest reviews are coming shortly. LA’s The Orangeburg Massacre are […]

I really wanted to like this album due to the killer artwork and card digipack it came in, however Seattle’s The Assailant are no more than another drop in the ‘caustic math metal, screamo, spazz-core with a bit of experimentation’ ocean. With the press sheet dropping words like Botch, pg 99 and Fugazi, the 8 […]

With former members of Confine, Grade, and SeventyEightDays, you’d expect Ontario’s To The Lions to be a well oiled, conviction fueled hardcore machine, and you’d be right. Mostly mid tempo, chunky, fluff free, passionate urgent hardcore rooted on the early 90’s scene (i.e. Integrity, Earth Crisis, Ringworm, Bloodlet, Turmoil) is the forte of To The […]

I haven’t really given Carnal Forge any thought or attention since their 1998 debut, Whose Gonna Burn? as all the subsequent albums seemed to blaze by in a tight but lifeless vortex of neo-thrash, but when I heard the band had a new vocalist and had taken a more melodic direction, I decided to give […]

I’ll admit, the only Samael record I really enjoyed was Passage, as I found the bands early black metal offering a tad overrated, and their last two efforts no more than a commercial foray into electronic/Industrial, Rammstein territory. Well, here’s a second Samael album for me to enjoy, as Solar Soul basically takes the elements […]

Ha-this is so awesome. Vancouver’s 3 Inches of Blood return for their anticipated 2nd album and the cursed Ozzfest appearances, and as second albums should be, everything is bigger, better and more METAL! The sheer, guiltless enjoyment that the band’s old school thrash meets NWBHM meets melodic death metal meets Robert E. Howard is as […]

I’m pretty sure I’m one of the few metal journalists that think Angelcorpse were a tad over-rated. Sure, albums like Exterminate and The Inexorable were good black/death metal albums, but I think most folks were caught up in the fact that a US band were going toe to toe with their Scandinavian counterparts in the […]