Deathcore duo Larcenia Roe got the deathcore scene’s attention back in 2023, with their self-titled EP, Dereliction. Especially the vocals of Ryan Vail, who made Lorna Shore‘s Will Ramos look like Hansi Kürsch. And indeed, there were immediate comparisons to Lorna Shore. However, Larcenia Roe‘s sound is much more of a grimier, beat down, and […]

I’m usually a little leery of bands that use the Kult, ‘K’ in their band moniker or album title. However, I also trust almost anything FDA Records puts out, so here we are. Nekrodeus hails from Austria and Ruaß (Austrian for ‘Soot’, but also a slang term for ‘rabble’ or ‘scum’) is their third album […]

Listen, I know. Even though they were founded first, Poland’s Hate sounds like Behemoth circa  Zos Kia Kultus, Demigod, Evangelion. I seen them be called ‘Wish’ Behemoth or ‘Temu’ Behemoth, but the fact is, I’ve ordered some pretty cool shit from Wish and Temu. And with the band’s 13th album that’s what you get- some […]

I knew nothing about Bavaria’s Drudensang. But the promo is listed ‘for fans of  Lunar Aurora, Abigor, Katharsis, Ascension, Nagelfar‘. And the band is comprised of current and former members of Mavorim, Atronos, Aphelium Aeternum and Belphegor. Im in. So Drudensang (loosely meaning ‘witch wail’ or ‘witch chant’), and Geysterzvvang (‘dark compulsion’) is a 6-song EP, […]

Listen, usually I spend the first part of my reviews wasting your time with introductory bullshit, back story, anecdotes, and general filler. Not for this one. Arizona’s Kardashev (named after a Russian astrophysicist who developed a theory for measuring a civilization’s level of technological advancement) is one on the most engaging and entralling new acts […]

After reforming after 18 years in 2020 and releasing one of the best reunion albums of recent memory with Cosmic World Mother, Finland’s enigmatic and genre-shifting…And Oceans wasted little time in releasing the follow-up, As In Gardens, So In Tombs, a mere 2 years later. And as I said in my review of As In […]

This spring/summer, two mid-era Behemoth-inspired acts will be vying for your attention: the always reliable Hate, and this French death metal act and their third album, although I have not heard the first two self-released albums. But Transcending Obscurity saw enough to sign them, and that label usually does not miss. And they certainly have […]

I knew absolutely nothing about Toronto trio A Flock Named Murder or their label, Hypaethral Records, other than they play post/atmospheric black metal, which has kind of been my jam lately, so I randomly grabbed the promo. Then, because I’m a goddamn professional (sometimes) I actually did some research on the band, only to find […]

Personally, I feel like we are in a new golden era of metalcore/deathcore/death metal female vocalists. Sure, the path was forged by the likes of Dawn Crosby (Fear of God), Karen Crisis (Crisis), Angela Gossow (Arch Enemy), Krista Curry (Landmine Marathon), Laura Nichol and Grace Perry (Light This City), Maria Kolokouri (Astarte), Courtney LaPlante (Iwrestledabearonce […]

Back in 2022, these French maniacs, formerly known as Herpes, dropped their excellent debut, Blood Red Tentacle. A fine Swedeath album with a foul reek of Autopsy that reminded me of the short-lived super group Murder Squad. And with their second effort, not much has changed. If anything, the stench of Autopsy is even thicker […]

I was drawn to the debut album from Belgium’s Coffin Feeder by the album cover featuring some awesomely iconic 80s movie and TV characters from the likes of  Cobra, Commando, Predator, They Live, Gremlins, The Running Man, Total Recall, Big Trouble in Little China, He -Man, GI Joe and others all who seem to be […]

Polish death metal duo Dormant Ordeal has been around since 2008, and has three prior albums under their belt, but they are a new act to me and newly signed to Willowtip for their 4th album. Much like fellow Poles Redemptor or Trauma, Dormant Ordeal plays a form of distinctly Polish death metal with traceable […]

I quite enjoyed the self-released debut from Aversed, Impermanent, back in 2021. It was an unabashed homage to Arch Enemy‘s styled melodic death, from members of Alleageon and Begat the Nephillim complete with Haydee Irizarry doing her best Alyssa White-Gluz impression. Well, there are a couple of changes in the Aversed camp. First, the jump up a […]

It took 6 years, but we finally have a new ADE album, their 5th, titled Supplicium (‘Punishment’) on a new label, Time To Kill records, and with yet another new lineup. Entering the fray is Hideous Divinity Drummer Edoardo Di Santo (as ‘Atticvs’ here), and Eyeconoclast bassist Gabriele Vellucci. What hasn’t changed is that ADE […]

It’s been since 2020, with Blodiga Skald‘s The Undrunken Curse, that I got truly excited about a folk metal album. *sigh* there was a time when any album with horns, strings, or an accordion would have got me all sorts of worked up. Sure Ensiferum, sort of does it for me, but when I say […]

That logo? Dave Ingram on vocals? Nuclear Blast Records? It just feels right, doesn’t it? 5 years after their return from a 12-year hiatus with 2020’s solid Scriptures, UK death metal veterans Benediction is back with album number 9. And while the band’s middle and later catalog isn’t quite the stuff of legend, there is […]

After two fine albums on FDA Records (including 2022’s fucking outstanding Feldwärts), Germany’s war mongering death metal act Scalpture have made the jump to a different German label, Testimony Records for their 4th album, though it comes with mixed results. Saying Landkreig is a step back from Feldwärts is probably a bit over an overstatement, […]

The debut album from the Scotlands’s solo artist Evangelos Vasilakos (also of equally fittingly named black/death act Chestcrush– who have a long in the upcoming Deathgasm 2 movie) has the most fitting band and album name ever, as this album is Caustic, Phlegm-y , Purulent, and Apocalyptic all at once Ladies and gentlemen, what we […]

I’ve covered this husband-and-wife duo for two EPs now, first with 2022’s The Void and then 2023’s Elemental Binding.  Both deliver excellent, discordant death metal with themes based on video games, D&D, and such. So I was super happy for the band when they signed with Transcending Obscurity, a perfect label for them. And the duo (Sunshine Schneider—guitar, […]

After two excellent, reinvigorated albums in Hammer of the Witches and Crytoriana, Dani Filth and his hired gang of ever-changing musical mercenaries, took a step back with 2021, Existence is Futile, where the constant line-up changes, appeared to have taken its toll, mainly Lindsey Schoolcraft, who was settling into her role as the new Sara […]

Colorado’s deathcore kings are here to beat your fucking face in. Right the fuck in. No theatrics, no choirs, no sweeping symphonics (ok, maybe just a smidge in 2 songs), just 4 songs in 18 minutes to remind you they arguably sit atop or near the top of the current pure deathcore heap. After delivering […]

I was late to the Istapp (‘icicle’) party, only discovering them on 2019’s stellar, The Insidious Star, but subsequently going back and listening to prior albums from the mid-10’s like Blekinge and Frostbiten. Honestly, though I had kind of forgotten about them, but 6 years after The Insidious Star a revamped Istapp is back. There […]

From the promotional email: FFO: Mental Cruelty, Worm Shepherd, Lorna Shore Yep, I’m in. How these Brits haven’t been on my radar before this EP is a mystery to me. They play my favorite genre of music right now and reside on one of the better independent labels doing said genre. But trust me after […]

After bursting on the scene with their 2007 debut, The Somatic Defilement, Tennessee’s Whitechapel quickly rose to the top of deathcore hierarchy with the follow-up, This Is Exile, in 2008, still a classic in the genre all these years later. However, subsequent albums like Our Endless War, Whitechapel, Mark of the Blade, and A New […]

Finland’s Admire The Grim, are a new melodic death metal band that leans heavily into their country’s fairly rich history of the genre. On their debut album, Resist they deliver a competent if by-the-numbers album of shredding, tightly played, melodeath that fans of Children of Bodom, Kalmah, and such should definitely appreciate. Fronted by Katri Snellman […]