Brilliance often breeds polarity. For example, Kezia, the 2006 debut from this group of young Canadians, split the metal community down the middle, with a love it or loathe it mindset. That being said, of all the non extreme metal albums I reviewed, Kezia seemed to be that rare non death, grind, black, thrash metal […]
Often the press and promo sheets that come with albums for review are the greatest work of literary fiction since “A History of Great French Military Victories” came out. However in the case of Alestorm it simply says this: ‘Scottish Pirate Metal.’ I’d say that about covers it. Formerly known as Battleheart, Scotland’s Alestorm (arguably […]
Recorded live at the Worcester Palladium in April of 2007, this 29 track DVD features most of the ‘popular’ Metal Blade artists. But while I have no problems with production or fairly bare bones but entertaining back stage interviews, I have issue with the fact Metal Blade went withtracks from teh likes of Beyond The […]
From the same coalition that brought us the excellent Sickening Horror release, comes another phenomenal technical death metal release from a part of the world you would not usually expect, this time in the form of the full length debut from New Zealand’s Ulcerate. Though not quite as experimental as the Sickening Horror release, Of […]
After making some waves with their debut release from The Faceless, the second release from the label is a smartly similar release of forward thinking, synth laced, techy, progressive, death metal/deathcore. Throw in some Between The Buried and Me styled arpeggio flourishes, and you get a pretty solid, if all too short release. Clocking in […]
Oklahoma’s The Agony Scene is in dire need of some therapy, because they have a considerable personality crisis. First, on their 2003 self titled debut, they unleashed a promising, Darkest Hour-ish, blackened form of Euro-death laced metalcore, then on 2005’s The Darkest Red, they went commercial metalcore with clean vocals and catchy choruses. So now, […]
“Lo-ruhamah is the name of the first daughter of the prophet Hosea and his wife Gomer in the Book of Hosea. The name, which translates as “not pitied,” is chosen by God as a sign of displeasure with the people of Israel for following other gods” -From Wikipedia. Lo-Ruhamah also happens to be stunning Christian […]
Every year there are a few releases that kill a genre for me. This year, Bless The Fallen’s Eclectic Sounds of a City Painted Black and White and Of The First Born’s self titled debut EP has killed melodic metalcore for me. Terrible, terrible cover, forced song writing and vocals and a plethora of utterly […]
To make it quick, if you like Tides, Pelican, The Autumn Project, Russian Circles, The Red Sparowes or any other instrumental, shimmery post rock outfits, just go ahead and grab the debut from Germany’s Long Distance Calling. An hour of artful, elegant instrumental music on par with the course is what you will get from […]
From the underrated German black metal scene and rising Van label comes a ritualistic, ambient black metal outfit consisting of two members of the far more primal outfit, Graupel. With a tangible influence of The Ruins of Beverast in the plodding, moody tones and to these ears, a hint of Summoning in the deliberate percussion, […]
I don’t mean for this review to turn into a rant about Crash Music, but holy hell do they just seem to sign bands that ride the coattails of whatever trend is in vogue at the time. Take Ashes of Your Enemy for example. It’s like Crash realized there is a thrash revival going on […]
With the break up of I Killed t he Prom Queen, Parkway Drive become Australia’s most prominent metalcore act, and with their second full length album, Horizons, cement the fact musically. While the much maligned metalcore genre gets its share of hate, when performed at a top notch level, I find it thoroughly enjoyable and […]
Jesus Christ. I tried to like this, I really did. It’s sort of melodic, experimental metalcore with lots of progressive moments, solos, clean vocals and such, but ultimately when delivered with such shitty musicianship and production; it pretty much ruined melodic metalcore for me. With tangible influences like Misery Signals, Shai Hulud, Bewteen the Buried […]
With former members of Cavity, Acid King and -16- , Black Cobra return with album number two of grimy, rumbling, tumbling metal for fans of Torche, High on Fire, Hail!Hornet, Negative Reaction, Kylesa and such. So yeah, if Mastodon were girthier, nastier and far far sludgier, you might get close to Black Cobra’s sound, a […]
After officially declaring …And Oceans dead with the transitional ..And Oceans/Havoc Unit/Sin Decay split, here is official full length debut from Havoc Unit, the newer and nastier incarnation of …And Oceans. While most will more than likely remember the last two …And Oceans offerings, AMGOD and Cypher as water down techno laced black metal, it […]
OK, so there is melodic black metal and then there is Norway’s veteran act Enslavement of Beauty, who with their third album, deliver an uber sugary sweet mix of Gothic synths and very polite, catchy black metal/melodic death metal. Think early Children of Bodom mixed with maybe the synth laced melodic death metal of Lothlorien […]
So back in 1998, one of my many blind purchases back then was New Dark Age, by this Bradford, England classic doom act. Of course, at the time I was all about death metal and because of ‘England’ and ‘doom’ was fully expecting something akin to Paradise Lost, Anathema or My Dying Bride. Of course, […]
From the label that brought us arguably my favourite Stockholm Death metal album of the last few years (Evocation’s Tales From the Tomb)comes the debut from Sweden’s Demonical, and featuring basically most of the productive but now defunct Centinex line up (As well as current Grave drummer Ronnie Bergerståhl), there no secrets as to the […]
The sound Irish metallers Primordial have developed over the last few albums is actually a lot like Ireland (namely Eire); it’s sweeping, rugged, majestic and also barren and beautiful at the same time. There’s also a sense of sadness and loneliness built into the fiber of both band and land. Nowhere is this more prevalent […]
As their album titles have become less wordy, Ohio noisemongers Harlots have become increasingly more experimental in their discordance. Though still steeped in technical, angular and caustic hardcore a la Ion Dissonance,Animosity, Engineer, Architect (and most of the Black Market Activities roster) and their ilk, Harlots have now successfully managed to weave in some moments […]
While hardly a ground breaking release of thrashy, energetic ATG drenched metalcore, the debut from Arise and Ruin is a solid entry into the saturated genre and certainly is a lot better than some of Victory’s other recent/upcoming releases (Taking Back Sunday, Farewell to Freeway, Moros Eros, The Audition, etc). Canada’s Arise and Ruin are […]
After a promising debut of caustic tech grind metal, Tennessee’s Nights Like These, much like similar sounding act Harlots, Khann and Yakuza, have injected a sense of droning, sludgy experimentation into their lumbering dissonance and while a decent effort, it’s not quite as good as the recent Harlots release. What you get is an album […]
So here is the third and worst recent ‘metal’ release from Victory. A few years back I reviewed the promising Stillborn Records debut from this then metalcore act, but then with Embrace the Gutter, it was obvious the band wanted to be lumped in with All That Remains, Diecast, God Forbid and Lamb of God […]
Ok, so there is ambitious, and then there is Germany’s The Ocean Collective…. Now on a label that is letting them release a double album (FluXion and Aeolian was supposed to be a double album), The Ocean have delivered a 14 track, 2 disc, 83-minute concept album (complete with lavish accompanying separate CD booklets) “based […]
Comprised of the band’s 2005 EP of the same name and 2002’s What Completely is Not EP, both re-mastered for this re-release, the ‘debut’ album from LA’s Exhausted Prayer is a adventurous foray into genre mixing resulting in a solid, if over ambitious affair that shows tons of promise. With a big dash of Opeth, […]