San Francisco’s progressive metal band Hammers of Misfortune released their debut album The Bastard in 2001. They would go on to release 5 more incredible albums, their last one the phenomenal Dead Revolution in 2016. HOM is an eclectic band with influences ranging from Manilla Road, Fates Warning, Iron Maiden, Solstice (UK). But they have […]
Seemed like yesterday I reviewed Multitudes of Emptiness from Journey into Darkness. This is Brett Clarin’s (formerly of Sorrow), symphonic blackened death metal band. Infinite Universe Infinite Death is the bands third album and this is longer than their previous album. Brett still likes those instrumentals as 3 out of the 9 tunes are just […]
My first 2022 release review is the self-released and self-titled album from Canada’s Maule. This four-piece act plays straight up balls to the wall heavy metal. 9 songs just shy of the 40 minute mark. “Evil Eye” opening up the album and Iron Maiden are a true inspiration for this band – think vintage Maiden, […]
Late last year, NYDM brutal death metal veterans Pyrexia returned with their sixth full-length album, Gravitas Maximus. They had recently announced the new album and honestly, it came out of nowhere-I was not expecting them to release a Covid album. I guess since their last album Unholy Requiem, was released in 2018, they wanted to […]
On top of Frank’s favorite new metal bands in 2020 was Lady Beast when I reviewed their fourth album, The Vulture’s Amulet. A complete banger of an album incorporating traditional Heavy Metal in the form of early Maiden/Priest/Manilla Road/Dio. So the early Power Metal influences were there as the band galloped along with quicker speeds […]
In their short existence, Denver’s doom metal act Khemmis have created some of the best metal these ears have heard in a while. I credit my buddy and former Deepsend Records owner, Graham Landers with introducing them to me some years ago and their three prior albums and eps are all excellent and well played […]
Houston’s Malignant Altar‘s Retribution of Jealous Gods demo from 2019 perked my ears up quite a bit. I knew the band was going to be a force to be reckoned with. The 3 songs were heavy, dark n cavernous and really filthy and grimy death metal. Realms of Exquisite Morbidity is their debut album and […]
Killing Addiction is a Florida death metal band which started in the late 80’s if you can believe that! After a bunch of demos/ep’s and their excellent 1993 debut album, Omega Factor, they stuck around a few more years until disbanding and then putting the pieces back together in 2006 and since then have released […]
Huronian is an Italian band playing melodic blackened death metal. They released an ep in 2020 and those three songs make their way onto this debut album As Cold as a Stranger Sunset. 9 songs in 41 minutes. After a brief intro “Portals to the Unspeakable” blasts through the speakers with a great riff and […]
When I look at bands doing covers I enjoy bands injecting their own style n bastardizing the original like Hooded Menace did to a Celtic Frost song a few years ago. When bands try n do spot on takes of originals it can be dicey especially if I love the originals. Deceased have been doing […]
Rotpit contains members from Germany’s Revel in Flesh as well as Sweden’s Wombbath. Both bands I love, who have not issued a bad album in their discography. I’m friend’s with Revel in Flesh’s singer Ralf Hauber and we’re always very supportive of one another. Ralf has a great set of pipes and when he told […]
Exodus’ 11th proper full-length album, Persona Non Grata, finally sees the light. The band opting to delay it twice due to Covid, as well as drummer Tom Hunting’s cancer diagnosis and treatment, so the release could be closer to when the band could begin playing live shows again. Time really flies and their last scorching […]
Ruin is a filthy California death metal band intent on throwing postulating open sores our way. They started in the 90’s disbanded then resurrected like 6-7 years ago and Spread Plague Death is their third album. Their previous effort Human Annihilation is still an ultra-heavy display of Autopsy/Impetigo stylized death metal and Ruin like throwing […]
Vulvodynia from South Africa are one of the heavy hitters in the brutal death metal/deathcore scene and in their short 7 year existence, have garnered quite a nice following, as well as releasing 3 prior full lengths and ep’s. Just like Korpse, Vulvodynia, were another free agent Unique Leader picked up and this year has […]
What can he said about the greatest industrial metal band of all time? I mean they started out as an alternative band until 1988 when the legendary The Land of Rape and Honey combined metal with industrial to create the benchmark for this style of music. Main man Al Jourgensen is a musical genius. Especially […]
My man Ray Lopez, owner of Thrash Corner Records recently re-released this debut album on CD, from Sweden’s Cruentus. Night Embrace Me is 10 songs of blackened/death/thrash metal. The opening song, “Slain”, gets things underway quickly. Some early Skeletonwitch influence are evident early on. The one thing, well there are many, that you will notice […]
Infidel Reich is back with their third release, their second full length New World Outrage. Another bombardment of Motörhead meets Sodom battalion of brutal death/thrash metal with smatterings of punk and even Carnivore. After kind of a meaningless intro “Sic Semper Tyrannis” comes bursting through with a killer riff which repeats throughout the album. I […]
Nephren-Ka are a brutal death metal band from France, just like Creeping Fear, who I reviewed a while ago, also on Dolorem Records. This is Nephren-Ka’s third album and the first I have heard from them. This review is for the 9 song album, however there is a bonus edition with 2 cover songs, one […]
This was a heavy duty order for me to review, Senjutsu, the 17th album from my favorite metal band of all time, Iron Maiden. Maiden’s earlier output from the debut up until Fear of the Dark are all my favorite Maiden albums. The first time I heard them was when I was 10 years old […]
Pessimist started in Maryland in the early 90’s and had a bunch of hype surrounding them and I became friends with guitarist Kelly Mclauchlin through mutual friends. To see him see me back with Internal Bleeding 3 years ago in the mid-west -wearing the Voracious Contempt purple tour longsleeve from the tour was a huge […]
Finally we get the anticipated and delayed new Carcass album Torn Arteries. Last year I reviewed the stop gap EP, Despicable and explained it was kind of a mixed bag with some great moments, but far too many average moments thrown in, with more Swansong moments. So let’s get to the review to see how […]
I had no idea Lithuania had such a diamond in the rough band – Sullen Guest, an excellent doom/death band. The band’s debut 2015 ep Will You Greet the Sullen Guest as an Old Friend? was a great display of haunting doom/death and the female vocals really enhanced their sound. Their 2018 debut album IIIIXXI […]
Salt Lake City, Utah’s Wicked Innocence just reactivated as an active band a few months ago and that goes swimmingly with the reissue of their second album – Omnipotence from 1995. I will not claim to be an expert on the band’s three other albums, because other than a few snippets here and there, never […]
One of Chicago’s best death metal bands, Fleshgrind, finally gets their two (2) demos Holy Pedophile 1993 and Sorrow Breeds Hatred… Bleed on Me 1995 released on cd with bonus content. Fleshgrind would eventually go on to record 3 full length albums but their demos are special for a number of reasons. The main thing […]
Infestation were a rather short lived, but no less important, death metal band from Massachusetts in the early – mid 90’s. With the death metal scene in New England putting out some killer bands, such as Tyrant Trooper, Scattered Remnants and Desolate, that entire area were also competing with the Boston Hardcore scene as well […]