I’ll admit for having a bit of a soft spot for Sweden’s Deranged, because their self titled fourth album, was one of my very first reviews for digitalmetal, and I conversed with drummer Richard Wermen for quite a bit after that. So, I was a bit upset when I heard that this album was be […]
“The Fastest and Most Brutal Deicide Album ever!” At least that’s what the cover proclaims, but it looks like Mr. Benton, after two creative critically acclaimed comeback albums in Scars of the Crucifix and The Stench of Redemption, wants out of his record contract with Earache and has reverted back to In Torment In Hell […]
I had seen the debut full length from Greece’s Dead Congregation thrown around by those ‘in the know’, but for some reason never checked them out until I recently received the re-issued 2005 EP, Purifying Consecrated Ground (review coming soon), enjoyed it, and decided to go and find Graves of the Archangels. And boy am […]
First off, I will not mention that guitarist/vocalist Paulo posts on a message board I frequent (damn). Second off, I have to say that the artwork for Muay Thai Ladyboys by Scott Porterfield, is absolutely fucking fantastic. Unfold the inlay for a surprise that’s like John Baizley artwork (Baroness, Darkest Hour), but felched through the […]
I missed this Arkansas’ band 2005 debut, The Head and the Heart, so I had no real expectations for what this band sounded like other than I knew that had former and current members of Rwake in their ranks and that guitarist Chuck Schaaf did a great job producing the last Serious Grind album. But […]
I’ve been getting a lot of shimmery, melodic post rock influenced metalcore/screamo type stuff of late such as Tides/Giant, November 5, 1955, Empires, Day Without Dawn, At The Soundawn and such, but when I got this 3 track CDEP/10″ release that features members of Philadelphia rockers Balboa and Towers, (including former digitalmetal.com writer and site […]
I have to admit I’m suffering a bit of an internal dilemma. Being an casual UFC/MMA fan I’ve seen the sudden abundance of Affliction/Extreme Couture shirts that’s flooded the scene as well as the malls of late, and I’m slightly torn if I like them on not.On one side-they are pretty metal. I mean what’s […]
Here’s a release that would seem really odd when you look at its actual parts: a 2 year old symphonic black metal album (originally rleased by Deepsend Records in 2006) from Canada, featuring former Ion issonance vocalist Sébastien Painchaud (going by the far more black metal name of ‘Ill-Fate’ here) as well as at one […]
Recently, I attended a Japanese Taiko drums show at my local performing arts center and during all the thunderous percussion, chanting, and Kai yelling I thought to myself how cool it would be it this stuff was mixed with metal… Enter Japan’s Birushanah. Leave it to the Japanese to take a tired metal genre, in […]
With all the complexity and technicality being thrown around in death metal this year, the third full length album from Japan’s Coffins is a welcome relief of earthy, primal mid paced doom/death metal that will appeal to fans of Cianide, Runemagick and Autopsy. With a phlegmy, hacking, feedback drenched, down-tuned guitar tone plying simple oozing […]
So here is Umesh’s second release of droning, one man black metal for Moribund, and while still retaining the undulating, icky undercurrent of the claustrophobic Dagonite, Angel Eyes sees more of a focus on sickly doomy riffs rather than ambience or mood, and the result while certainly oozing with tentacled horror and dread, is at […]
After boldy claiming their Victory Records debut Goodbye to the Gallows was the ‘most brutal CD of 2007′, Emmure return with their more humble, yet equally devastating follow up. And while admittedly, most metal heads will turn up their nose at this group of cocked hat, short haired kids and their hoodies, but truth be […]
A few months ago, I reviewed the excellent debut full length album from Kansas City’s black metal act Lo-Ruhamah, entitled The Glory of God. The review was well received by the band and subsequently I have stayed in touch with the band and eventually an interview with another publication was set up. However, understandably, the […]
So last spring, Metal Blade cock teased me to no end by including a post card with “Coming in 2007-new Shai Hulud album!” on it, and I’ve pretty much had a boner for it ever since, as Shai Hulud is one of my favorite bands ever since their arguable involvement in developing the current modern […]
It’s a good thing I got the recent Day Without Dawn album around the same time I got the debut release from this Italian post rock band, because now I have something to compare At The Soundawn to; shimmering, delicate, acoustic heavy, artistic post rock. While more of a long EP (7 songs) than a […]
Much like Animosity when they released Shut it Down in 2003, or Decapitated’s Winds of Creation debut in 2000, California’s Fate is a group of very talented young teens plying thier chosen genre, in this case crumbly, growling death core laced with Between the Buried and Me-like arpeggios. Despite members barely out of high school […]
Repetition is the name of the game for Buffalo, NY’s Wrath of the Weak and their second album of bleak, dystopian and clinical one band basement black metal that’s as interesting as its cover art. Sole member ‘J’, while certainly having a grasp of the requisite atonality, atmospheres and tenets of the genre, simply does […]
As a child, one of the movies that left an indelible imprint on my psyche was 1978’s Watership Down. As a five year old I was too young to grasp the political, religious, social and possibly misogynistic undercurrent of the movie based on Richard Adam’s deeply engrossing literary works-I was too busy being horrified by […]
Continually overlooked in the doom scene yet consistently brilliant and evolving, Ireland’s Mourning Beloveth, have yet again improved from album to album. This time, the band has improved on the brilliant A Murderous Circus by adding even more classic doom flair to their already draining funeral doom lope. As with A Murderous Circus, Mourning Beloveth […]
The last album I heard from these Finnish doomsters was 2006’s The Return to Nothing and it was a solid if unspectacular slab of rending, Finnish death/doom, and Descend does not change the formula though it annoyingly flirts with brilliance amid its paint by numbers growling mope. The recipe is pretty simple for those that […]
I’ve been struggling with this review for a while now, first because it’s my first exposure to Virginia’s Arghoslent, and second, because of the obvious controversial themes and lyrics the band brings to the table. To skirt the band’s apparent racist and Anti Semitic views would feel like a cheap way out, and to focus […]
So I’m laying in bed in my pre-sleep haze with my Ipod on random. And after a few tracks of the expected deathcore, death metal and black metal, my Bose head phones are filled with some just stunning, sumptuous, ultra layered and shimmering post rock acoustics and delicate vocals. I check my Ipod discover the […]
Much like Bloodbath’s Resurrection Through Carnage in 2002, the debut from Hail of Bullets is an album forged by a group of death metal veterans plying a pure homage to classic death metal. Headed by vocalist Martin Van Drunen (Pestilence, Asphyx) and joined by guitarists Paul Baayans and Stephan Gebedi (Thanatos), bassist Theo van Eekelen […]
Hailing from the Netherlands, Heidevolk are Napalm’s latest folk metal darlings. Hot on the heels of the likes of Svartsot and Alestorm, Heidevolk might be the best of the bunch, and arguably the best folk metal album I have heard since Ásmegin’s Hin Vordende Sod & Sø. Apart from the expected gallop of Viking-tinged hymns […]
Swiss Straight edge hardcore act Cataract return with their fifth album of burly, chugging metallic hardcore that won’t really make much of an impact on the genre, but is a sturdy release none the less. However, as when the band changed things up from Martyr’s Melodies to With Triumph Comes Loss from melodic metalcore to […]