Here’s a release I completely overlooked earlier this spring, but as I was searching through the vast Teethofthedivine promo library in search of melodic black metal similar to stuff I recently reviewed by Warmoon Lord, Winter Eternal and Runespell, I stumbled across the short but excellent gem of a debut from this Spanish black metal […]

The ever productive Matthew Schott is back with another Sxuperion album, that’s 6 in 6 years, along with a few splits and Eps as well his output in Garden of Hesperides,  Valdur and Oreamnos. I reviewed 2019s Endless Spiritual Embodiment but never got around to covering 2020s Omniscient Pulse, (Sorry Matt, I’ll blame covid). However, […]

Sun of the Suns is a new band from Italy featuring members of tech-death act Carnality, deathcore stompers The Modern Age Slavery, and symphonic death metal band Nightland, but also features  Francesco Paoli from Fleshgod Apocalypse helping out on drums. And for once, the FFO recommendations in the promo actually nail it pretty hard, mentioning […]

Sweden’s Havamal ( ‘the words of Odin’), is a relatively new Norse/Viking-themed melodic death metal band with one album under their belt from 2019, Tales from Yggdrasil, which I have not heard. I was in the mood for something Viking -y to tide me over until the new Thyrfing, and this has fit the bill […]

As I said in my review of Passéisme’s album of the year contender, Eminence, Antiq Records is becoming a very good, consistent label, plying black metal that’s a bit medieval , a bit avant-garde and sometimes both, as in the case of the French act, Ascète and their excellent debut album, Calamites & les Calamités. Also, […]

You are starting to hear and feel the impact of covid and the chaotic final year of Trump’s administration on some albums being put out now. Albums that were written in seclusion, online, in depressive states, in rage. I think we are seeing a real creative burst in the metal scene, that might be one […]

And so the killer, 2021 Bolt Thrower/ Hail of Bullets worship/homage continues, this time from notable Australian duo, Dave Haley (drums/recording) and Jason Peppiatt (vocals, guitar, bass, artwork) of Psycroptic. And if the prospect of these two delivering 8 songs about various battles in history doesn’t give you a howitzer-sized boner, then move along. Of […]

Fuck. So back in February, I swore that Ominous Ruin‘s Amid Voices That Echo in Stone would be the tech death album of the year. Then shortly after that, Stortgren’s Impermanence,  was definitely going to take that mantle. But then Hannes Grossman dropped To Where the Light Retreats, earlier this summer, and THAT album was […]

I’ve interviewed Alestorm twice over the years, both at this very site. And in both interviews, legendary Brit fantasy metal act Bal-Sagoth comes up as a huge influence on Alestorm’s Chris Bowes. Now, he developed that influence a little bit in his power metal outfit Gloryhammer, but I’ve been waiting for him to truly flesh […]

I rather enjoyed 2019s Tyrannotophia, from this Dutch downtempo band, as it ended up being one of the better deathcore/ downtempo releases I have still heard. Then I found the follow-up EP, Dawn of Curruption a bit boring, and the band got surpassed by label mates Bound In Fear as the best band in the […]

In my 20 plus years of music ‘journalism’,  I’ve had the pleasure of meeting lots of folks at shows, for interviews, over the phone, etc. However, a few dudes standout out as absolutely the nicest , chillest guys I’ve met; all the chaps from Between the Buried and Me, Carnifex drummer Shawn Cameron, and Mike […]

I had high hopes for this, the second album from Sweden’s Deathswarm. It’s on FDA records, which is almost always a good sign. !t features members of cult Swedish act Sarcasm, and the promotional materials threw out words like ‘Bolt Thrower’ and ‘Dismember’. And even after opening tracks “We Still Burn” and “Unshackle the Jackal”, […]

Oh Spotify, you know me so well. Your algorithms get me. Your daily playlists are the perfect blend of stuff you know that I already like, and stuff you think I might like, but and occasionally throw something in my Daily Mix that makes me instantly buy stuff, case and point, when you played “Awakening […]

So I’m finally getting to a couple of FDA Record’s releases from earlier this summer, Deathswarm’s Forward Into Oblivion, and this, the third full length album from Greece’s Rapture, a band I have not heard before. Both deliver what you’d expect from FDA Records at this point, but Rapture certainly has a bit of a […]

You kind of know what you are getting into here from the get-go: the band name taken from a Vlad Tepes song, the album title, the corpse painted, armored promo shots of lone Finnish member, Lord Vrăjitor, (also of Old Sorcery and doom act Musta Risti) the logo, the cool artwork, prior releases named Burning […]

Wow, there is a lot to unpack from this Italian duo’s third EP, Царепоклонство – Il culto degli Zar (Cult of The Tsars). At its core, it’s symphonic black metal. Musically, I’m reminded of 2 recent symphonic black metal EPs that were a little out side the box; First Lamentari’s Missa pro Defuncrtis from last […]

In theory, I should have been all over this release, the debut from Oregon’s Felled (formerly known as Moss of Moonlight). It’s Cascadian, atmospheric black metal with a violin. Not an occasional violin, but like My Dying Bride, Exulansis or Hung, a full-on, full-time, violin, courtesy of Tiffany Holliday who along with some of the […]

Every time I’m ready to signal the death knell for deathcore, along comes a release that kinda gets me excited about the genre again, whether it’s a veteran band like Despised Icon coming back from the dead or a newcomer like Anime Terror. Right now it happens to be the Unique Leader duo of Mental […]

I have to admit I’m a little bored of brutal death metal. Especially the stuff Comatose puts out on the regular basis; gurgle, squeal, rape, cunt, gore, blast etc. I  mean I don’t dislike it, there is a time and a place for it, but the last album they released that remotely stuck with me […]

I’ve reviewed both the prior albums from Indiana’s Yellowtooth, fronted by the ever-busy Pete Clemens (Invasion, Corporation SS, Nocturnal Torment), each better than the predecessor, and that trend continues with album number 3 (complete with a redesigned logo), a full-on jump to the next level in quality. Describing Yellowtooth is difficult as they shift around […]

Thank goodness for variant releases. The CD version of this French band’s second effort somehow passed me by last year. But here’s to second chances, as War Anthem Records has picked up the vinyl version of one of the better Swedish, HM2 sounding bands of the last couple of years. If you are a fan […]

I rather enjoyed the 2017 debut, Flesh Hammer Prophecy, from this German Dismember-loving band. However, I somehow completely missed the 2019 follow-up, The Harvest, (which has since been rectified) where the band made the jump from FDA Records to Metal Blade, much like Entrails, and have now unleashed album number 3. From the opening strains of […]

I’m not gonna lie. I grabbed this debut album promo as it said it was current and former members of Allegaeon,  Unflesh (who recently released one of my favorite albums of the year so far) and Seven Spires, and I was really hoping it was vocalist Adrienne Cowan. However, it was not, but still it […]

I’m really enjoying what French label, Antiq Records is doing of late. I first discovered them with 2019s Par le sang versé from Véhémence, which made my 2019 year-end list. And now, here is 2021, they have a trio of excellent releases that could all end up on my year-end list from Hanteroz, Ascète, and […]

So here is my second American symphonic metal album released this spring, the other being Dead World Reclamation‘s solid The Black Dahlia Murder with keyboards effort, Aura of Iniquity. I have no idea what or who a Wythersake is (google was no help), but on their debut album they offer up some solid if unspectacular […]