If you have ever been out to dinner with Toxic Holocaust, you know what to expect from the band’s sixth full-length album, Primal Future: 2019. While Toxic Holocaust releases have never been the Wolfgang Puck or Gordon Ramsay of thrash metal, they are far from being the local McDonald’s brand of drivel that barely satisfies, […]

Sweet Texas watermelon! Has it been two years already? Wow…it really doesn’t seem like a couple of years have passed since Exhumed released their fan and critic praised Death Revenge, but here I am blasting my eardrums as well as my face, clean into oblivion with the aural onslaught that is Horror, Exhumed‘s seventh full-length […]

Admittedly, I was zero percent familiar with Aggravator and any of their previous output before their new self-titled EP. Though after spending some quality time with said EP, thanks to Unspeakable Axe Records, who have just recently re-released Aggravator after being independently released earlier this year, I will be hunting down their earlier efforts and […]

Well summbitch…As if I needed another reason to love Denton, Tx;  here comes Creeping Death, hot off the heels of their last EP, Specter of Death, with their full-length debut, Wretched Illusions. Besides being a cool place that I’ve always had great times in, whether playing shows with my own band, scouring records shops for […]

What can I say about Bones and their new, and third full-length album, Diseased, that hasn’t already been said before about a few other bands; namely, the ones that seem to influence Bones and their trade of crusty and sometimes even punky, no frills, basic, bare boned death metal. If Terrorizer/Nausea meets Celtic Frost/Obituary by […]

You’ve heard of the Six Degrees of Separation right? Hell, you’ve probably even heard of the quirky, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Well, I guess you could say that it was the Six Degrees of Dave Ingram that led to my introduction of  Cropsy Maniac. You see, it goes like this: I’m a big Benediction […]

Ahh Thrash Metal…For the most part there are usually two camps when it comes to the liking of the genre. One camp simply being lovers of the trade, relishing in everything it is, in all of its neck breaking glory; the other camp tends to keep its distance from the beer and sweat smelling, denim […]

Hot damn! The floor is lava, my ass. The floor is pure fucking Death Angel fire! Rest assured, the band’s newest thrash platter, Humanicide, will burn you up, consuming your pitiful little being, leaving nary a trace that your ever existed, much less mattered.  A bit much? Maybe, but Humanicide really is that good, we’re […]

Chicagoan four-piece,  Nucleus, have returned with their sophomore LP, Entity, and while I haven’t necessarily been on pins and needles awaiting new material these past three years since their debut full-length, Sentient, I have been looking forward to seeing where these cosmic laced death dealers would take their brand of brutality with future releases. Sentient […]

I don’t know what it is with England/the U.K., but that little island nation just cranks out fantastic metal, plain and simple. From originators to imitators, the amount of quality and varied material is quite astonishing, and while I wouldn’t put London’s Lvcifyre in the hallowed halls of British metaldom just yet, I would recommend […]

I first heard about Usurper, via Metal Maniacs magazine, roughly about twenty years ago. The band had released their second LP, Skeletal Season, in 1999 and were due to follow it up with their third full-length, Necronemisis, in 2000. As it always does, extreme metal was once again going through stylistic changes and Chicago’s Usurper […]

Skulls? Czech. Wild corpse paint? Czech. Black attire? Czech. Hooded/cloaked member? Czech. Spiked wrist band(s) and/or gauntlets? Czech. Finger claw ring thingy? Czech. Satan as the bands frontman? Czech. Wait…What? That’s right friends, Hnus Umirajici’s frontman/vocalist is apparently the Prince of Darkness himself, or at least according to the band’s press bio. In fact, the […]

Remember in Rocky IV when Ivan Drago beat the beloved Apollo Creed to literal death? Do you remember the brutality of the beatdown and the shock and awe of witnessing what had just occurred? Well friends, I do. I remember it well, and the feeling I get from listening to Moscow, Russia’s Critical Extravasation is […]

Well I’ll be damned, color me impressed. Brescia, Italy’s, The Scars in Pneuma, and their debut album, The Path of Seven Sorrows, really caught me by surprise with its mature sound and songwriting. While the band cites influences from the likes of Rotting Christ, Mgla, Dissection, Be’lakor and others, in the end it’s just a […]

I’m always going to consider Malevolent Creation to be in the top-tier of death metal bands. This is probably due to the fact that I am an old-school fan from their first few early 90’s offerings, and those feelings I have for their earlier material, coupled with the fact that the band has consistently released […]

Hot damn! I like surprises (at least good ones) just as much as the next guy or gal, but I have to say that some of my most favorite surprises are when I find out a band I really like has released a new album right under my nose without me knowing anything about it. […]

Generally speaking, average and/or mediocre albums can be quite the proverbial bitch when it comes to reviewing. Much like a dining experience that is merely decent and all around adequate, how does one go about recommending something that is just basically sufficient? Seriously, how many times have we either told someone not to go to […]

Coming to proper metal age, i.e. my teenage years, during death metal’s initial ’90’s explosion not only introduced me to what would become some of the greatest music on the planet, but it also introduced me and many like-minded individuals to the fantastically macabre offerings of H.P. Lovecraft. Considering that damn near every band at […]

Master is a bit of an unusual act. The band, or more specifically, bassist/vocalist and founding member, Paul Speckmann, has been involved in the metal scene for 35 years now and arguably, he is credited among other notable metal alumni such as Death‘s Chuck Schuldiner, Possessed, and Necrophagia‘s Killjoy with helping create death metal itself. […]

IT’S MORPHIN’ TIME! Okay, I won’t lie to you guys. I didn’t actually know the catch phrase to the once longtime running children’s show without having to look it up. In all honesty, I’ve never seen an episode of the original program or its spinoffs as I am considered an old fart to many youngsters, […]

Oklahoma City’s Dischordia are back! Back with a brand new two song, 25-minute mind fucking that is Binge/Purge. Just a year and a half after the release of their last full-length, Thanatopsis, which I threw heaps of praise at, the power trio serves up a punishing cocktail that leaves all who indulge, assed out on the […]

Ah, Celtic Frost…Whether you love ’em, hate ’em, or are just meh about them, one thing is fact. Their influential impact on metal was, and still is, a huge and undeniable thing. Some have taken that Frost-y influence and built upon it with great success, i.e. Obituary, while others have more than just flirted with […]

First and foremost, I would like to give Sevared Records’ Barret Amiss II, a big thanks and shout out for hooking me up, at this year’s Maryland Deathfest, with a copy of Flesh Consumed‘s new album, Hymn for the Leeches. Being that it has been eight years since their previous album (apparently, problems with label […]

Wowwee! Chicago’s own Beyond Deth may have just brilliantly answered a question  none of us ever gave a shit to ask. Though after listening to the bands’s debut release, The Age of Darkness, maybe it’s a question that should have been posed long ago. That question? “What would a thrashing death metal band sound like […]

Back in 1999 Sweden’s, The Crown carved a much loved niche in my heart with their debut, Hell is Here (yes, I know that the band had two previous full-lengths under the Crown of Thorns moniker). Extreme metal was in a little bit of a weird state, with lots of genre transitioning seemingly taking place […]