Spewing forth from the same sick Dutch mind as Gnaw Their Tongues’ Mories, Migdal Bavel is the second album that Mories has created under this moniker and while still a sick, nasty record, its more of a black metal based record than the droning insanity of Gnaw Their Tongues. And I say that very loosely […]
Released last year independently and now more recently distributed by Saturnine Media, California’s Cormorant has released a stunning melodic death metal album that that’s adventurous, ambitious and brilliant. I’ve seen the likes of In Flames, Opeth and Slough Feg mentioned in reference to this band due to the prevalence of melodic riffage, heavy metal backbone, […]
Here’s another late 2009 release that is worth your while even if you can look past the fact that the moniker, label, logo, cover art and band’s looks scream Hot Topic deathcore. The fact is though, Australia’s The Red Shore, despite all the above going against them they are more along the lines of As […]
As usual for this time of year, I’m trying to get onto 2010 releases for review, but there are always a few worthwhile, late 2009 stragglers that I feel deserve a mention and your ear. One such release is the debut from Tennessee’s Enfold Darkness. I know Sumerian Records get a lot of flack for […]
If you think about it, for gruff metal heads a lot of us are accepting of some pretty mellow non metal acts: Tenhi, Nuen Welten, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, old Mortiis, Summoning, Dornenreich just to name a few, seem to get a free pass with metal heads and as artistically brilliant as many non metal […]
When I reviewed (for another site) the 2008 album, Behind Enemy Lines, from New Zealand’s Christian metalcore/hardcore act, I suggested that Facedown/Strikefirst Records would be a good fit for this band for their next album. Booyah. Ok, enough of that – onto the album. The fact this album is on Strikefirst (Facedown’s baby brother) should clue […]
First off, the packaging from this EP is pretty unique, though its bound to drive storage-o-phobes nuts: the CDEP comes in a LP sized sleeve, with the CD resting in the middle on a spinner and the inlay is an LP sized folding poster. I just wish the music was as adventurous and creative as […]
Featuring members of black/doom act Eyes of Ligeia and Crimson Moon, Atlanta’s Legions of Astaroth have been plying their trade since 2004, culminating in this solid debut of frosty, grim and mildly atmospheric black metal. While most of the metal media seems to take heed of the more artistic side of US black metal (Krallice, […]
2009 was a pretty strong year for grindcore (and Willowtip) with the likes of Blood I Bleed, Napalm Death, Defeatist, Insect Warfare, Afgrund, Mumakil, Magrudergrind and such delivering the grinding goods, and Willowtip put the cherry on top of 2009 with the 5th album from Polish stalwarts Squash Bowels. If you are familiar with European […]
Without fail, the same thing happens at the end of every year; I submit my year end picks to various outlets, only to have a release cross my path that would have made the list. In this case the second self released EP from Long Island’s Painted In Exile would have hands down been the […]
And so Australia’s assault on excellent extremity continues with the third album from Tasmania’s black metal horde Ruins. My last contact with this act was the 2004 EP, Atom & Time, which to my recollection, was a traditional, frosty, clinical style of blistering black metal. I missed 2008’s Cauldron (even with its belated US release […]
I’ll get straight to it. One of my favorite releases of the year, and indeed of the last few years is the debut from California’s Fatalist, “The Depths of Inhumanity”. Why? well, I’m a sucker for old school Swedish Death Metal, and Fatalist, right down to the logo, song titles and even some promo photos are Entombed incarnate. I caught up with band founder Neil Burkdoll to take The Left Hand Path and discover The Truth Beyond….
For those that don’t know, John Peel (RIP) was a BBC radio DJ who championed the extreme and the underground. While BBC Radio 1 and 2 (back then), was busy playing The Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, Mel and Kim and other pop chart topping tripe, Peel and his late night Sunday radio show was playing […]
Don’t worry, I’ll keep this review only focused on the music…. The third and final album from despondent musician Umesh sees Brown Jenkins continue the more guitar based, droning approach of Angel Eyes, straying away from the more ambient depressive hues of the debut, Dagonite. And while the result is less suicide inducing than the […]
When listening to the self released debut from Canada’s Aquila (featuring former members of Bloodshoteye), I get a little sense of Deja Va as I’m reminded of Loren Battle’s Words Begins Wars, release earlier this year; Confident, well done, polished, epic artwork – and all of it self released. But it’s also plying a genre […]
With their debut self released EP, Italy’s Unconventional Disruption has simultaneously added to 2009s self released excellence (Belakor, Cephalectomy, Kalisia, Vengeful, Avicularia) and to Italy’s impressive, growing death metal scene, (Hour Of Penance, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Vomit the Soul, Gory Blister). With a chunky, angular, down-tuned sound, these five excellent songs reminded of a more controlled […]
“Rebirth of Gorgorooooooooth!!!!” It’s fitting that after all the legal and personal issues that have plagued this Norwegian stalwart black metal band over the last few years, that the third track has returning vocalist Pest spit out this line during the aptly named third track, “Rebirth” Truth be told, I’ve never been a huge fan […]
You know when you burp and sometimes you ‘vurp? You know, that hot sour taste as what seems like beef stew rises up the back of your throat, into you mouth, and then you are forced to swallow back down its acidic, regurgitated goodness. You know the look on your face when you swallow it? […]
Canada is hardly a hotbed for melodic death metal, but recently, with the likes of Muspellheim and now the debut from Montreal’s WarCall (formerly known as Plan B), things might be changing. Though only active for 2 years, this four-piece delivers a pretty solid if unspectacular and often hot/cold debut in Demonarchy. Nothing groundbreaking or […]
Disconcert Music has done a solid job of reissuing albums by the likes of Canopy, Agony, Stigmatized, Symbiontic, etc, and now they have added the 2007 self released debut from Canada’s Muspellheim, winners of the 2006 Long & McQuade Metal Fest (apparently judged by Gene Hoglan and Devin Townsend). Boasting a razor sharp production and […]
I dug the debut self released demo from this Portland metal act, and on their 6 song follow up, they have shown lots of improvement to their modern take on metal that includes lots of sweeping, epic synths, breakdowns and dual melody laden metalcore. Admittedly, this music is for a pretty niche group, but for […]
After two albums on At A Loss Recordings, the former Cavity and –16-duo jump to Southern Lord Recordings for album number three, and despite the label change, Chronomega picks up exactly where Bestial and Feather and Stone left off: gritty, crumbling sludge metal with a dash of discordance that comes across like a nastier, more […]
I’ll admit I am a Protest the Hero fanboy. I love both Kezia and Fortress and having met and interviewed the band after a local live show, I found a new appreciation for them, not just as a band, but as a pretty cool group of kids. That all being said, I wasn’t sure about […]
It’s fitting that this Croatian band take their name from a genus of spider that includes Tarantulas, because their form of spazzy, angular, technical , slightly experimental death metal is the perfect soundtrack for a nature documentary where spiders do their skittish, frantic, unpredictable, spidery things. The twisting, twangy form of death metal that Avicularia […]
Though Christianity as elbowed its way into previously untouchable genres of music, black metal despite a few attempts (Lo-Ruhamah, Frost Like Ashes, Admonish, Horde, Crimson Moonlight, etc) has generally resisted ‘unblack’ metal Christian interjections. So how about some Christian, symphonic black metal from the depths of Colombia released on a brand new indie label based […]