I never know what to expect from Vendlus Records. From the industrial black metal of V:28, the completely unclassifiable musings of Especially Likely Sloth, the folk art of The Mist and Morning Dew, the black metal excellence of Wolves In The Throne Room or even Audiopain re-issues, the label defies pigeonholing. However, with Grayceon the […]

After 6 albums, November’s Doom have been one of the most consistent acts in the US doom/death scene and along with Daylight Dies have made some international noise and comparisons. However, they have never really taken that true step forward (as Daylight Dies did with Dismantling Devotion), but now with album number 6, the rock […]

While the Pacific Northwest has become renowned for its many one man, suicidal black metal projects, the scene is quickly becoming little more than Xasthur/Leviathan cloning with little or no deviation from the template laid down by Wrest and Malefic and I’ve been waiting for a person/band to add a little something different to the […]

Here’s another off the wall noisy alt rock record from Crucial Blast, similar to Black Elk’s recent self titled effort, and like that effort, is a swing and miss despite the bands Once boasting members of Don Caballero and Zombi (and probably giving readers a rough idea of the band’s sound), Pittsburgh’s (((Microwaves))) is a […]

On the surface, there’s a lot to exited about this reincarnation of (the underachieving but respected in the Gothenburg scene of the early ’90s) A Canorous Quintet, who were briefly called The Plague before settling on the rather metalcore-ish moniker This Ending. However, even with a somewhat revered lineup that includes current Amon Amarth drummer […]

I have to admit, when Prosthetic signed this Indiana band I was a little confused seeing as their debut, Your Blood, My Vendetta was a pretty mediocre metalcore effort that did little to warrant further interest, yet alone a record deal with the Prosthetic, arguably one of US metal’s better labels.However, somewhere between the debut […]

Back when Black Market Activities was a new label, one of their first releases was by Found Dead Hanging, who subsequently broke up. Now, Found Dead Hanging (and Word As AVirus) return as Architect.Folks, this is a gnarly, blistering, chaotic and a downright heavy album. Sharing traits with similarly chaotic recent spurts from the likes […]

Initially formed from the ashes of Vehemence, Abigail Williams is a symphonic black/death metal act that now only features one former Vehemence member (guitarist Bjorn Dannov), but is no less of a quality act.Though some may try to label AW as metalcore with synths, this is certainly not the case as comparing AW to the […]

Every year there is an album that I get too late to submit to my various journalistic outlets as one of the best albums of the year. This year, that honor falls to Minnesota’s Battlefields, who despite their blackened moniker and album title, manage to somehow mix the ambient soundscapes of Pelican, Isis and even […]

From the label that recently punished my ears with the likes of Animosity and The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, as well as other noisy acts like Ed Gein, The Network and Architect, comes a slab of grinding Vegan chaos that’s a perfect fit next to their label mates as far as sheer, discordance tenacity, but […]

In a year full of technical death metal excellence from the likes of Decapitated, Gorod, Psycroptic and Spawn of Possession, along come a group of six kids from Encino, California and fuck everything up. I’m truly starting to believe that anything that gets labeled as “deathcore” or “metalcore” is now becoming strictly due to the […]

Fully titled Twilight Ophera and the Order of the Sanguine Diadem presents: Descension, (Order of the Sanguine Diadem being a choral group who has added their talents to this release) the fourth full album from Finland’s Twilight Ophera, is a run of the mill, but competent exercise in symphonic black/death metal.While listening to the dense […]

I think most (except Johnny Hedlund himself according to a recent botched interview), would agree that Sworn Allegiance was this legendary Swedish death metal/Viking act’s real comeback album, and that Hell’s Unleashed was a sick joke. Either way, with a change in label, these Swedish stalwarts are truly, truly back with a blistering album far […]

Plying an up-tempo, melodic mix of Darkest Hour, God Forbid and Unearth, California’s Antagonist are competent, enjoyable and skilled, but still rather unoriginal. Though arguably falling under the vast metalcore/American metal umbrella, Antagonist have a healthy does of modern tight, Euro thrash in their sound (sort of if Carnal Forge played metalcore), and deliver it […]

Though this nice 2CD/DVD combo will only appeal to the Hot Topic Crowd, (5% of the profits from this DVD go to the Hot Topic Foundation), it’s still a well put together package that feature most of the bands that today’s kids are digging.The 2 CDs (38 tracks in all) contain nothing too special, mostly […]

While generally, most US black metal seems to be either one man grimness, rather superficial attempts at 1990’s Scandinavian with little or no creativity or identity, or even have some sort of metalcore tinge, California’s The Funeral Pyre have delivered one of the most surprising melodic black/death metal releases to come from a very young […]

Here’s my first exposure two this dual drummer owning band and their hefty form of crumbly, dissonant sludge and Im sort of torn on it. On one hand when absorbing this release on a 300 watt stereo at full volume, the Mastodon-ish vibes that careen from the speakers with muscular and angular tones and shuddering, […]

I assume if you actually clicked on this review, you are either a Killswitch Engage/metalcore fan, so will forgo the usual metalcore is saturated and KSE is the darlings of MTV 2 spiel and get too it.Despite plying basically the same sound as the previous record and an overall sense of metalcore cliche overload, As […]

I’ll make no bones about it. I liked this band. A lot. In fact, I prefer them to the like minded Darkest Hour and The Black Dahlia Murder as far as their modern take on slightly melodic, uber tight thrash metal is concerned. That’s right, I said I liked them better than Darkest Hour, and […]

Like semi commercial Christian metalcore? Like Demon Hunter, As I Lay Dying, A Love Ends Suicide, As Cities Burn and War Of Ages? Just go ahead and grab this and forgo my review. Though not as heavy as label mates Becoming the Archetype and August Burns Red, Destroy the Runner are neither as commercial as […]

I’ll be the first to admit that none of My Dying Bride’s post As the Flower Withers albums haven’t really done much for me. First, mainly because have always found Aaron Stainthorpe’s clean croon insufferably whiny. There, I said it. Secondly, 34.788% Complete just ruined the band’s legacy for me. Even with the band’s sort […]

Although St. Louis, Missouri hardly has a thriving metal scene, it does have a handful of dedicated and consistent metal bands that always seem to surface when a national tour comes through. Such is the case when I covered a recent Dismember/Vital Remains/Grave/Withered show at the Creepy Crawl where one of the opening acts and […]

The acclaimed debut from this German three man act, Back to Times of Splendor, was my top album of 2004, and I was not alone in my praise for an album that took melodic death metal and made it exiting, progressive and challenging. However, as the release of the follow up Gloria grew nearer, I […]

First, after re-listening to The Codex Necro in preparation for this review, there is no doubt in my mind that the debut album from this British duo was and is one of the most extreme releases ever and arguably the most important extreme record to come out of the UK since Scum. That being said, the […]

Well folks, they have done it. One of my favorite bands has finally forced me to write the review that metal fans and COF detractors have been waiting for. While, there’s no question these arguably influential British shock rockers have been shedding the black metal guise of their fat Nick Barker, top hat wearing, precocious […]