Posts Tagged ‘Erik T’

Fall of Serenity – Open Wide, O Hell

So here is a reunion I’m not sure anyone was really clamoring for. Fall of Serenity came up with fellow Germans Heaven Shall Burn, releasing their first material on a split with HSB in 1999. They released four albums between 2001-2007 that all delivered the same sort of metalcore/hardcore/melo death sound (although their debut was […]

Last Ten Seconds Of Life, The – No Name Graves

After a solid career that saw TLTSOL emerge as a solid upper-tier US deathcore act with 6 albums, guitarist Wyatt McLaughlin saw his band gutted back in 2022. He rebuilt TLTSOL and delivered a solid EP, The Disquisition of an Execution in 2023 to get the new lineup greased up and ready for what was to […]

Keres – Homo Homini Lupus

There is one single reason I checked out the promo for the debut from this new Italian Black/Death metal project and that is the stunning artwork from the band guitarist Astahrot. My gosh that is killer- for the love of god, put that on a shirt, please! Now onto the music. Keres plays a relentless […]

Far Beyond – The End of My Road

On its surface, the third album from this German solo act doesn’t seem like a very “Prosthetic Records’ styled release. It’s a synth and choir-drenched slab of European melodic death/power metal in the vein of Ensiferum, Wintersun, Brymir, and such. But then I remember Prosthetic Records has released two albums from Foretoken. The gentleman at […]

Spiritual Deception – Semitae Mentis

While power and black metal was/has often been the primary vehicles for keyboards/ orchestration in metal, I still fondly recall some of my early exposure to more epic keys and orchestration (not just intros or a bit here or there for atmosphere) in death metal such as Nocturnus (arguably the first to do so?), Amorphis, […]

Job For A Cowboy – Moon Healer

It’s been ten years since we last heard from Job For A Cowboy, so let me give a cliffnotes back story: the band is one of the first deathcore bands to blow up thanks to a Spongebob Squarepants video mash-up to the song “Knee Deep” (it is how I first heard the band- and it’s […]

Acrid Death – Abominable Presence of Blight

It’s early days in 2024, but German newcomers Acrid Death (though with veteran members of other bands like All Its Grace, Driven by Entropy, and Synchronic) along with Ceremonial Death (on their split EP with Unformulas) look to be frontrunners for 2024s best HM2/Swedish death metal guitar tone. Fans of Entrails take fucking note here, […]

Apparition – Fear the Apparition

Originally released last year on Oregon’s Headsplit Records, the debut from Spanish trio Apparation has been reissued by Germany stalwart label, FDA Records less than a year later, a testament to how FDA Records views Apparition. So the old-school cover should give it away, but Apparition (featuring ex and current members of Ataraxy, Bloodsoaked Necrovoid, […]

House of Atreus – Orations EP

The universe is a strange thing. Case and point, a few weeks ago I was randomly sitting around and suddenly found myself thinking “I wonder what’s going on with House of Atreus?”.  They released two damn fine albums (2015s The Spear and the Ichor That Follows and 2018s From the Madness of Ixion), then sort […]

Mind Conflict – Temple of God

Mind Conflict is an international duo (Ivan Izmer — Vocals/Guitars/Bass, Stefan Andreev- Drums) with members in Portugal and the Middle East. Temple of God is their debut and they are influenced by old-school death metal and 90s metallic hardcore with lyrics about the shitty state of the world today. I don’t know much else about […]

Exocrine – Legend

When talking about French technical death metal, the absolute top of the list is Gorod, but I think there is an argument to be made for Exocrine to be right there with them. The Bordeuax band has been on an absolute tear since 2018’s Molten Giant, which was somehow their third album already. Then with […]

Cariosus – Will, Until Beauty

Cariosus is a new young Chicago duo comprised of Alex Pfister on vocals/bass and Kevin Kryszak on guitars (I can’t find any drummer information, so maybe programmed? They sound fine if so). The duo plays a form of modern metal that pulls from metalcore, melodic death metal, deathcore and such that leans into bands like […]

Valdrin – Throne of the Lunar Soul

Another late 2023 release that I was late to the party was, is the fourth album from Ohio’s symphonic/melodic black metal act Valdrin. It’s been a while since I heard from them, as it was 2014’s debut on Blast Head Records, Beyond the Forest where I was introduced to them, but have not heard anything […]

Carnation – Cursed Mortality

Though 2023 is in our rearview mirror, there’s still a slew of quality late 2023  releases lingering that deserve your attention. One such release is the third album from Belgium’s Carnation, who burst onto the scene with the impressive debut Chapel of Abhorrence back in 2018 and followed it up with the equally impressive Where […]

Atronos – Erwachen

Germany’s Atronos is one of the many projects that feature vocalist ‘Baptist’ who also serves in two other great German black metal acts Mavorim and Eisenkult. Eisenkult used to be his outlet for more triumphant medieval black metal with albums like 2020’s Gedenken wir der Finsternis, but in 2022 Eisenkult did a split demo with his […]

Drown In Sulphur – Dark Secrets of the Soul

Italy’s Drown In Sulfur got off to a hot start in the blackened deathcore genre with various EPs including the excellent Blackwind EP, which I really enjoyed and own, and I thought the band was ready to blow up. Then the band literally blew up shortly after with drummer Domenico Tamila kicking out all of […]

Impalement – The Dawn of Blackened Death

Impalement is the Swiss, one-man project from Beliath (who also helps out with Germany’s Nargaroth for live shows).  But unlike the other recent Swiss one-man project I reviewed, Felonie, which was more melodic atmospheric black metal, this, as the apt album title states, is blistering, black/death metal. The Dawn of Blackened Death is the second […]

OWDWYR – Receptor

Cripes, I haven’t had an album make me scratch my head as much as this in quite some time. OWDWYR is a technical death metal/grind/djent experimental metal trio (aided by a literal army of guest drummers for almost every track- including Kevin Paradis of Benighted and Kenny Grohowski of Imperial Triumphant) that utilizes classical and […]

Ryujin – Ryujin

Formerly known as ‘Gyze‘, and with four albums under that moniker from 2013-2019, this Japanese melodic death metal band has themed their music as ‘Samurai metal’, using copious Eastern instrumentation and influences (dragon flute, erhu, shamisen, etc) and visuals to bolster their energetic, shredding take on melodic death metal. And now armed with a new […]

Embrace Your Punishment – Made of Stone

France’s Embrace Your Punishment started as a pretty standard hardcore Hatebreed-ish band with some death metal hues back in 2014s Honor Before Glory, but has got progressively heavier with 2019s Nameless King, especially vocally. And now with album number 3, Made of Stone, are an absolute beast of a band that blends hardcore, brutal death […]

Nail Within – Sound of Demise

Jesus Fucking Christ. Has it really been 20 years since Israel’s Nail Within released their self-titled debut? That was three jobs ago, I was a baby; only 27 years old, and my daughter was only 3. She’s now graduated college and had a job for almost 2 years….FUCK! I mean the absolutely killer tracks “Dirty […]

Æolian – Echoes of The Future

I’m new to Spanish veterans Æolian, but after hearing Echoes of the Future, they, like the recent KING I covered, are one of those bands where I instantly pre-order the album and then go back and purchase the entire back catalog. Fuck this is good. I mean from start to finish, every note and exquisitely […]

A Hill to Die Upon – The Black Nativity

The last time I did a review of a Christmas album, it was Majestica’s take on Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. A largely successful, fun, power metal album with plenty of Xmas cheer and classic Xmas hymns and elements. The Black Nativity is the complete opposite. And not in a good way. Illinois Christian black metallers […]

Deathcode Society – Unlightenment

What’s in a name? Well, I have to admit I’m shallow enough I passed up this promo when it first showed up in my inbox as the name Deathcode Society did little to draw my interest. Then, while listening to a symphonic black metal playlist on Spotify, the track “Scolopendra”, played, and my attention was […]

Aphelium Aeternum – Dark Interstellar Mysteries

If you’ve read this site for any amount of time you know I’m a sucker for 90s-styled symphonic black metal. And here is the debut from German newcomers Aphelium Aeternum and their excellent debut Dark Interstellar Mysteries, which delivers a perfect rendering of the genre, imbuing the classic acts like Dimmu Borgir, Obtained Enslavement, Old […]