While I enjoy a certain few instrumental bands such as Pelican, Keelhaul, Electro Quarterstaff and Tides I generally like my music with vocals. But Trephine presents a rather interesting take on instrumental mayhem, with a rather eclectic style of instrumental metal. Forsaking the norm of expansive atmospheric droning, Trephine, like Dysrythmia, takes a more spastic, […]

Few bands can claim to have the recent adversity of Soilent Green (the tragic death of bassist Scott Williams), and it shows on this album as Soilent Green is as angry as ever. Admittedly, Soilent Green’s last album A Deleted Symphony for the Beaten Down, had a ‘samey’ quality about you just had to enjoy […]

After a four year hiatus, Philly’s All Else Failed return with a revamped line-up and a renewed energy to follow up their Archetype album.  And while certainly a solid album of metallic discordant, chaos core and hints of other more commercial ingredients, I’m not quite sure there’s room for All Else Failed at the top. […]

I’ll admit it. This was easily one of my most anticipated released for 2005, and upon looking at the cosmic album artwork and equally celestial song titles, I had some pangs of disappointment as I braced for a cyber/space metal style change from one of my favorite bands. However, upon hitting play and being greeted […]

Wow, this is good. Formerly known as Natt, a gothic metal band with female vocals, this Norwegian band is now a far more impressive beast with a darkly progressive and avant-garde black metal lean that imbues visions of Arcturus, Solefald and Lunaris.The first thing you notice when “Joyless Trance of Winter” fires up is the […]

It’s rare I make any personal connections to any bands in this business as I deal mainly with PR and label folks. I may do an interview with a band, but that’s the last time I generally talk to them ever again. With a few exceptions (Tomer Pink from Subterranean Masquerade. Lord K from The […]

“Napalm Death is pissed off, Long live Napalm Death!”. I must admit, I’ve never really been a huge Napalm Death fan other than Harmony Corruption. I only own their early catalogue to earn scene points and frankly after Fear, Emptiness, Despair, Diatribes and Inside the Torn Apart efforts, I gave up on them all together. […]

I’m always uncomfortable reviewing re-released ‘lost classics’, especially when I never heard it first time around. I had to dig up this Quebec thrash band’s biography to find out who they were, but apparently this lot was hot shit in the Canadian Metal scene but due to bad label distribution, this 1986 album never truly […]

We all know that death metal isn’t exactly a forte of the Finns, but here is Finnish black/death metal supergroup of sorts, named after a desert in South America and featuring current and ex members of Funeris Nocturnum, Swallow the Sun, Machine Men and Sotajumala. And its pretty fucking good. With this group of band […]

I’ve enjoyed listening to Aborted’s transformation from cold Floridian death metal clone to a menacing, groove filled, Belgian Carcass homage, and with the The Archaic Abattoir, Aborted have released the album that Impaled’s Death After Life should have been. Backed by Tue Madsen’s (Mnemic, In-Quest, Ektomorf, Heaven Shall Burn) massive sound replacing Goremageddon’s slightly mechanical […]

More fine non-doom form Firebox, and upon immediate listens, Finland’s aptly titled Total Devastation reminded me of The Amenta and Scarve with their intensely ballistic take on cybernetic metal, although not quite as blackened. Of course Reclusion boasts a massive production (courtesy of Finnvox) and has the usual injections of cyber samples and programming, but […]

I really wanted to like this, even more so after the blistering opening track ‘Reaction’. Commercially gleaned metalcore with a healthy dose of modern punk and old school hardcore (Bane?), but in the end the album loses steam and ends up being lumped in with the vast hordes of faceless middle tier, cliched metalcore.If the […]

A quick look and the band members best albums of 2004 gives you a quick insight as to the style of this Italian mob of noisy young men.; Converge You Fail Me, The End Within Dividia, Isis Panopticon, oh and Converge You Fail Me. Did I mention Converge? Yep, Italian Converge lovers unite as The […]

I can’t pretend to have heard this bands prior apparently grindcore based offerings, so I cant tell you how The Healing Process compares, but what I can you that this is the best album Dying Fetus never did. With members of two of my favorite Canadian bands, the mighty Neuraxis and In Dying Days, Despised […]

2005 is shaping up to be a monstrous year for doom, as Shape of Despair, Esoteric, Novembers Doom, Pantheist, Draconian, and now Ireland’s finest musical export have fans lining up for Zoloft prescriptions all over the world. After the superb The Sullen Sulcus, Mourning Beloveth jump to tiny German label, Grau (a sub label of […]

In 2003, O Solitude was one of my favorite albums and I actually thought the band broke up after than superb effort. Well, apparently they relocated the UK (from Belgium) and had a lineup shuffle. Thank god, ‘cos now possibly the finest funeral doom band around can follow up their excellent debut with a suitably […]

So far this year one of my very favorite albums has been the debut album from Ligeia, Your Ghost as a Gift. And while most roll their eyes at the very mention of metalcore, the Ken Susi produced effort does everything right. So when given a chance to see the Massachuset’s youngsters on their current tour with From A Second Story Window, Dead to Fall and Ed Gein, I made the trip to the Creepy Crawl in downtown St. Louis to brave my first ‘metalcore’ show and interview with the bright eyed and youthful group of kids in their tour bus…

The grimmest of the grimmity grim and the Kvltest of the Kvlt black metal, and it’s on Southern Lord? Talk about the law of opposites attract. With an ex-Kvist member and current members of Vulture Lord and Asmegin in its ranks, Urgehal as if you could not judge from the cover are a pure and […]

More religious themed metalcore following the likes of Symphony In Peril, Zao, The Showdown and Norma Jean, but unfortunately despite a valiant and impressively powerful effort, Alove For Enemies just don’t quite measure up to their peers. The main reason for their slightly lacking result is that despite a super punchy production and a plethora […]

Ever since Mithotyn were sent out on a burning ship into the Gulf of Bothnia, many bands have clamoured to claim the crown as Viking metal’s undisputed king. Some like Hin Onde and Twin Obscenity have failed, others like Enslaved have simply given up the battle and progressed. Only Thyrfing have truly flirted with Viking metal brillaince consistenly, unchallenged for the vacant throne. Until now. With the realese of Voimasta ja Kunniasta (or Of Strength and Honour in English), Finland’s Moonsorrow have catapaulted to the top of the Viking metal heap with a brilliant second album. It is an album deeply rooted in Viking culture and Norse mythology with songs that envisage heroism, bravery, family, life and death. I had the pleasure of visiting with Baron Tarwonen and Ville Seponpoika Sorvali, two of Moonsorrow’s warriors, who are obviously beaming with pride from the superb opus.

I thought Trivium’s debut Ashes to Inferno held a lot of promise and so did Roadrunner apparently, snapping them up to try and reinvigorate their flagging metal roster, and they picked a good band to do it as Trivium seem while possibly herded under the vast metalcore banner, would actually seem to fit in with […]

C’mon people. DO you REALLY need me to review this? What are you expecting? Trip hop? Cyber metal? Classical music? This is a Nile album fer chrissakes, and that alone will essentially dictate whether you buy this or not based on your opinion of the last three albums. My only dilemma is dressing up this […]

A couple of years ago Bloodbath started a mini phenomenon by paying homage to classic Swedish death metal albums such as Left Hand Path and Like an Ever Flowing Stream. By gathering a group of influential, talented musicians the album was well received in no due part to the source material. Others followed; Murder Squad, Incapacity, Ribspreader,Facebreaker as well as other veteran bands still successfully pawning that style, delivering solid albums (Dismember, Fleshcrawl, Centinex, Grave)after many years. Enter the Fins. With arguably equally a killer influence on modern metal, Amorphis and Sentenced had their own special niche in death metal, so a special group of Fins decided it was their turn to pay homage to the Swedish classics in the form of super group, ChaosBreed. If the name doesn’t give it away (a track from Entombed’s seminal Clandestine), ChaosBreed is a pure throwback death metal album, Finnish style. Complete with a Sunlight buzz and infectious grooves, the simple yet aptly titled Brutal is the collaborative effort of vocalist Taneli Jarva (The Black League, ex Sentenced), guitarist Esa Holipainen (Amorphis), guitarist Marko Tarvonen (Moonsorrow), drummer Nalle Osterman (Gandalf) and bassist Oppu Laine (ex –Amorphis), and is in fact…brutal. I caught up with Esa Holipainen to get the lowdown in this killer album as well as the band’s take on the classic era they captured perfectly.

European hardcore seems to be growing in stage dives and spin kicks, and more so, it seems to be more influenced by mid 90’s hardcore and old school brutal death metal than the melodic metal influenced stuff the US is chucking out now. One such band of brothers of Instil from the Netherlands. Their debut album Fire Reflects in Ashes, is a rumbling, chugging barrage of sweat and blood that sounds more American that most American bands who are in turn trying to sound European. It was actually one of the most underrated slabs of heaviness I heard last year, so I thought I’d talk to voclasit Rene Smit to not only find out more about the band, but also give them a little well deserved exposure…

For some reason, Kansas’s Origin seems to be one of those bands the metal community has singled out for a rather undeserved level of internet harassment. Sure, on their self-titled debut they were a mindless vortex of speed, but on follow up Informis, Infinitas, Inhumanitas, I really thought the band improved and focused somewhat although […]