I was first exposed to Harm’s Way many years ago when I saw them open for Hate Eternal (if I recall right).  I remember being blown away by their energy and their killer beatdown hardcore style, and the nasty vocal style of their oft-shirtless lead man (who looks like he could be a professional powerlifter).  […]

In 2006 I became a fan of Goatwhore’s blended blackened death metal when A Haunting Curse was released and I saw this Louisiana act live and they crushed.  Their sound was incredible and they were cool dudes as well.  In total Vengeful Ascension is the band’s 7th full-length album.  Their last album, in 2014, Constricting […]

If there was one band I feel like I could copy and paste a review from a prior release, change to song titles and call it good, it would be Cannibal Corpse. And sometimes that’s not necessarily  bad thing, and that’s the case with Cannibal Corpse‘s 14th studio album. Despite all the pre album talk […]

Although The Black Dahlia Murder have often had a tendency to divide listeners, those who have kept the faith and followed the band over their decade plus career have been duly rewarded by some killer albums and a consistent track record.  The band’s tireless work ethic and expert refinement of their thrashy melodic death formula […]

After reigniting the Swedish death metal revival with 2 albums of Dark Descent Records, Entrails moved to Metal Blade and released Raging Death and Obliteration, the latter of which saw a line up change  as long time guitarist Mathias Nilsson left, replaced with youngster Penki Samuelsson and it showed with a solid but underwhelming effort. Well, World […]

Well this was a pleasant surprise.  To be quite honest I had never heard of this group prior to delving into massive quantities of new 2017 releases.  Sweden’s Below have been around since 2012 and Upon a Pale Horse is their second full length release.  Opening up with “The Plague Within”. The beginning of this […]

It’s been 5 years since Sweden’s Evocation released Illusions of Grandeur in 2012, and frankly I thought the band was done. After transitioning from a  pure, mid range, Swedish death metal band akin to their Cemetery/90s roots, to a more melodeath/Amon Amarth-ish styled band the band has returned with only 3 remaining members from Illusions of Grandeur, […]

After splitting in 2011/12, founder and lone remaining original member Henri Satler as well as long time drummer Michiel van der Plicht decided to reform the band. They are joined by veterans  Jeroen Pomper (Absorbed) and Mike Ferguson (Detonation), but even after 5 years and the new line up, the results are the same, reliable, consistent and […]

As I stated in my review of 2015s Forensic Nightmares, it would be easy to simply look at Cut Up as Vomitory 2.0, seeing as the band is comprised of 3/4 ex Vomitory members (drummer Tobias “Tobben” Gustafsson, guitarist Anders Bertilsson, and vocalist/bassist Erik Rundqvist),  and you know what? When it’s this solid, that’s perfectly OK. Still delivering the […]

England’s Anaal Nathrakh have been kicking the snot out of extreme metal fans worldwide, since the late 90’s.  I was late to their camp, due to the impossibility of being able to afford every release.  Thanks to Graham Landers, from Deepsend Records, for recommending them to me some years ago.  I remember getting a Christmas […]

More often than not, supergroups are a collective of guys or gals trying to get out side the box and deliver something more outside the realm of their full time endeavors as the folks try and spread their creative wings or whatever. But sometimes, one only need look at the members involved and get a […]

Lets face it, the term super-group has been thrown around haplessly and needlessly an umpteen amount of times in the genres of metal. Though of any band was actually deserved of this title, it would have to be Charred Walls of the Damned. Its members (drummer, Richard Christy, vocalist, Tim “Ripper” Owens, bassist, Steve DiGiorgio, […]

Positioned at the forefront of the modern metal scene, Revocation’s endless creative streak and strong work ethic shows no signs of faltering on the band’s sixth LP, Great Is Our Sin. I must admit to a touch of bias bordering on fanboyism, as from my perspective the band has never disappointed across a decade long […]

Damnit, damnit, damnit Abnormality… why did you have to go this route?!?  After 2012’s PHENOMENAL Contaminating the Hive Mind (which made my year end top albums list), which one of you decided that mailing in a snooze-worthy, by the numbers brutal death metal album was a good idea?  And after being signed to Metal Blade […]

Let’s face it, whether or not Chris Broderick’s name rings a bell with you is probably irrelevant, as you as a metal fan are bound to have heard something of his output.  Be it his time with Jag Panzer, his stint with Megadeth, or even his time performing live with Nevermore, chances are that you […]

“Heirless” is the perfect intro for this album. Equal parts foreboding, dissonant, and soothsaying; it encapsulates what is about to occur during the play through of Monarchy; Rivers of Nihil’s second album. On this sophmore release, this Reading, PA band have expanded upon the ability to tell a story, craft a memorably technical song, and […]

So Vomitory broke up in 2013 after one of the most consistent yet unheralded death metal discographies to ever come out of Sweden. But 3/4 of the band ( drummer Tobias “Tobben” Gustafsson, guitarist Anders Bertilsson, and vocalist/bassist Erik Rundqvist) are back under a rather uncreative new moniker, Cut Up. I’m not sure what you are expecting from a band that’s […]

Eschewing the standard tropes of the “bigger, louder, faster, heavier, etc” second album adjectives that most metal bands embrace, Secrets of the Sky have written an album that peaks and wanes with life, character, mood, melody, and dissonance. Pathways is an album through and through with segues that give the listener the feeling of arriving […]

Cattle Decapitation is a group that has definitely earned a reputation for themselves with a career spanning nineteen years and with six full length releases on their belts they have truly knocked the ball out of the park with their 2015 release The Anthropocene Extinction. Conceptually focusing on The Anthropocene Era, Cattle Decapitation has created a forty six minute […]

For 5 years and three previous albums now, Sweden’s Entrails, reactivated from the 90s has been arguably the forerunner and top band in the Swedish death metal revival. After two killer albums on FDA Rekotz/Dark Descent, they were elevated to the big leagues with 2013s Raging Death, on Metal Blade Records, and didn’t lose a […]

I was not overly impressed with the 2012 debut Symbiosis, debut from this Florida tech death/deathcore act. There was nothing inherently wrong with it, it was just yet another faceless (no pun intended) modern tech death/deathcore record with little soul and all twiddle and breakdowns. The kind of stuff that Ive heard too many times […]

After classic Swedish death metal, my second favorite style is the burly, blasting, but measured, commanding death metal that’s a step below tech death, that the early Floridian (Monstrosity, Deicide, etc.), New York (Suffocation, Dying Fetus) and Polish scene (Behemoth, Vader, Hate, etc.) did so well, and was encapsulated perfectly last year by the likes of Abysmal […]

Though around long before, since 2005’s The Gathering Wilderness Ireland’s Primordial has accomplished 2 things; became one of metal’s best bands, and second, locked doggedly onto a sound that’s unmistakably theirs, that none have recreated. So, if you were a fan of The Gathering Wilderness, as well as 2007’s To The Nameless Dead and 2011’s Redemption at the […]

Never judge a book by its cover. Or in this case, don’t write off a band simply because they have a goofy name and used to be a scenester deathcore act. ‘Cause holy hell, this cowboy has learned some new tricks at the rodeo. Granted, that’s because the band that catapulted to MySpace stardom and a Metal […]

Prolific and consistent are two words that spring to mind when assessing the career thus far of Boston’s Revocation. Finding cunning ways to manipulate and expand their signature technical death thrash formula has been a key to much of the band’s success and creative progress. Yet when it was announced that their year-by-year release trend […]