The 2020 solo debut, Verisaarna, from Hex Inferi ( ex Horna), was a blistering, icy cold blast of classic black metal in the Marduk-ian realm of relentlessness, with some innate Finnish nastiness thrown in. And while Kataklysmi is not quite as palpably frosty, it delivers much of the same frozen swathes of black metal, maybe […]

Like The Mist From the Mountains and I Am The Night from earlier this year,  Pestilent Hex is a Finnish symphonic black metal supergroup  of sorts. However, this particular project is from a duo  (L.L and M.M) who also perform in Desolate Shrine, Ordinance, Convocation and Corpsessed. And whereas the the two projects above have […]

You’d think an epic, symphonic death metal band named after Icarus’s father would deliver a Greek mythology-based album. But what we have here is a concept album about Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated, 1845 artic expedition where two ships, Erebus and Terror, and their crews of 129 went missing (also the loose basis of the excellent […]

Austrian technical deathcore/technical death metal outfit Spire of Lazarus has been on my radar for a bit now since they released two video game-themed albums under the moniker Dayum. Both 2017s Dark Souls and 2019s Ghost of Sparta (which is being re-released at the same time as this album, under the new name with Reality […]

I imagine being a Swedish death metal band, playing Swedish-styled, HM2 death metal AND hailing from Stockholm carries a little weight with it, what with Entombed  Grave and Dismember all hailing from your hometown. However, youngsters Katakomba are up to the task and have delivered a fine, if not damn brilliant homage to their hometown […]

Ho hum, album number 12 from these now fully established scene veterans, who have blown up in one of metal’s most consistent and best-selling acts. And if past logic shows us anything this should be a better Amon Amarth album based on the band’s affinity for good, then not as good, then good then not […]

I grabbed this promo to review as I dug the 2020 debut from Germany’s Eisenkult, …gedenken wir der finsternis back in 2020 ( though I somehow completely missed last year’s Von Himmel, Hoch Herab) as it was a super melodic, medieval black metal release, and I love that shit. So it appears somewhere between the […]

In my ongoing quest to discover symphonic death metal of any sort here in 2022, I’ve stumbled across some awesome, obscure stuff this summer alone,  like Japan’s Imperial Circus Dead Decadence ( whose 殯――死へ耽る想いは戮辱すら喰らい、彼方の生を愛する為に命を讃える―― might be my album of the year- which was just going to be too much of a challenge to review/type), The […]

I’m always on the lookout for heraldic, medieval black metal in the vein of Véhémence, Eisenkult, Sühnopfer, Abduction, Ungfell, Hanternoz, Passéisme, Heltekvad  and such. And here we have the debut EP from one-man band, Frenchman Alexis Chiambretto, and this 4 song 22-ish-minute debut is a must-have if you enjoy any of the above bands. You […]

What the heck is this? Christian Deathcore? Good Christian Deathcore even? What is it……. 2010 or something????? It’s been a while since I covered and enjoyed a Christian metal record, let a alone a Deathcore one that recalls a peak of the genre and bygone era when the likes of Earth From Above (still the […]

As a listener and certainly as a reviewer, there’s always a certain point when you are checking out a potential album where you say to yourself “Nope, I don’t like this” and move on ” or say “Yep, I’m digging this” and keep listening. On Seraphic Punishment, the debut album (though they have been releasing […]

Listen, when it comes to power metal, like my porn tastes, I have very specific, odd niches that I enjoy. For some reason, I skip right past the ‘normal’ power metal like Primal Fear, Firewind, Hammerfall, Iced Earth and such and dive headfirst in with unfettered glee into the uber cheesiest, symphonic cosplay-loving, LARPing, cape-wearing […]

I grabbed the debut full-length album from Barcelona’s Mankind Grief as Lacerated Enemy has released a couple of solid blackened deathcore releases already in 2022 ( Hurakan’s Via Eterna and Downfall of Mankind‘s Vile Birth) and Monarch had a song on it called “LV-426”, so I was hoping for a full-on Alien/Aliens themed album. Alas, […]

Now THAT is an album cover. T-shirt immediately purchased. But how is the music? Well, Lacerated Enemy has taken a break from symphonic/blackened deathcore and delivered us a fucking monster of a slam/brutal death metal record from France’s Kanine. And if you thought Organectomy (whose Nail Below Nail releases the same day as Karnage) or […]

You have to admire the balls on the PR company that sent out the email for the promos for Imperious, the debut album from Colorado duo Inexorable…”For Fans Of: Dying Fetus, In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, Dimmu Borgir and Children of Bodom“. Fucking hell!!!!!!- Sign me up! Admittedly, the bait and switch worked on me. Hook, […]

California’s Inanimate Existence has been releasing quality albums for a few years now, but never seems to quite break into the discussion of absolute top-tier tech death with say, First Fragment, Gorod, Obscura, and such. Even when they had Riley McShane (Continuum, Alleageaon) in their ranks back in 2014, they were juuuuuust on that cusp. […]

Here is yet another project from the mind of Matthew Schott (listed here as ‘Repulsive Dirtnap Casket Crusher’) with the help of some other mysteriously unknown figures (Filth Esophagus Vacuum: vocals, SixSixSix Chambers of Rotten Mold: guitars/leads,  Four Filthy Shelves of Putrid Decay: bass), to go along with Valdur, Oreamnos and Sxuperion. And what we […]

First off, hats off to Alestorm for the whole Iron Maiden, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son homage/parody for their very own seventh album. Well played lads. Second, this is an Alestorm album, so by now, you know what you are getting, especially as the band has really locked into a sort of pirate/party metal […]

The last time I heard Alabama’s Writhing Shadows, its was when I reviewed a group of cassettes from then fledgling label, Gurgling Gore, that included featured Wharflurch and Seep. Well, both the label and band has been productive since then with numerous cassette releases, with Writhing Shadows having released a split, an EP, a single, […]

Italy’s premier Dwarven-themed power metallers are back with album number 5, and although I only discovered them after 2017s Stonehymn, (where they truly leaned into the Dwarven imagery and themes), they have been one of my favorite power metal bands since. 2019s Wintersaga brought us the youtube hit and earworm “Diggy Hole”, (sitting at 34 […]

I’m not quite sure that to make of Bellgrave’s Back As King. The internet tells me this German veteran act started as a doom/death band back in the early 00s and then turned onto a sort of hard rock death/doom band with some still sort of gravelly semi death metal vocals (courtesy of Danny Hoff, […]

It seems like forever ago when Sweden’s Soreption was a contender for my 2014 album of the year with Engineering the Void. The perfect blend of stuttering Meshuggah syncopation and tech death wizardry as well as sudden bursts of orchestral elements just hit m perfectly. However, the 2018 follow up, Monument of the End, didn’t […]

I don’t think there is any doubt that the first three albums from Entrails,  2010s Tales From the Morgue, 20011s The Tomb Awaits, and possibly the band’s 2013 Metal Blade debut, Raging Death are the pinnacle of the Swedish death metal revival. However, subsequent albums Obliteration, World Inferno and Rise of the Reaper didn’t quite […]

Detroit’s death/doom mongers Temple of Void has parlayed 3 solid albums (notably the last 2 efforts,  2017s Lords of Death and 2020s The World That Was on Shadow Kingdom Records) into a deal with heavyweight label Relapse Records. And as you’d expect on a jump to the ‘majors’, the band has upped the ante, but […]

Question: name a Swedish death metal band that has been around for over 20 years, and has released 14 consistently good albums in that time span? Chances are you were not thinking of The Project Hate MCMXCIX, the brainchild of one Lord K Phillipson, a gentleman whom I have conserved with over the internet over the years since the third album, Hate, Dominate, Congregate, Eliminate. His supporting cast has changed over the years (though he has been finally locked into a stable group of hired guns for a while now), but one thing remains; the absolutely monstrous albums he and his troupe kicks out.

And what makes it even more impressive is that the last 6 albums have been donation funded, paid for by fans of the project, via ‘donation experiments’ whereby fans can donate money, and upon a certain amount being reached, he commences assembling his musical avengers and recording the album and sends those results digitally to those that donated. There is even a limited CD run if the fans, again want to pay for the whole CD-making process.